Happy New Year!!!
Yes, I am aware that it's currently April.
I have 2 reasons for the long delay. One being that about a month ago my phone suddenly refused to charge. It's a known fault with the model apparently, and can be fixed, but I need to have the mental energy, and the spare cash required before I can get it fixed. So I'm currently borrowing a friend's old phone, which is perfectly serviceable, although it does require charging 3 times a day, and will randomly die at a charge level of somewhere between 16 and 30%. Still better than a phone that won't charge at all. Except that many of the photos that I took before March 4th are now unavailable to me. Only those that were stored on my SIM card, or SD card. I had no idea which things I'd need to photograph again, and little spare time or energy to work that out. The reason for my lack of spare time and energy (and money!) is the other reason that I've not posted in so long:
This adorable creature is Finn. He's a 7 year old working cocker spaniel, as a former gun dog he used to flush the grouse from cover, then help to retrieve the dead birds when they'd been shot. At the end of the grouse shooting season last November he broke his elbow, and although his owner paid a lot of money to get the best surgery possible for him, he will never be strong enough to work on the shoots again. Rather than keep him in the same kennels as the rest of his working dogs, but have to leave him at home when the others went out for the shoot, he chose to give him up for adoption to a home where he will be loved, and spoiled, and have a long and happy retirement. Stephen and I were lucky enough to be chosen as his new mummy and daddy. We adopted him at the start of February, and it's the best thing we've ever done.
Now I have to show you a bunch more photos of my baby, just because he's so awesomely cute :D
Stephen came home from work when I was sorting out all of the stash I'd acquired since January 1st. Finn had already been "helping" (Look carefully at that first photo again, see that tangle of yarn? ) the pair of them decided that the middle of my stash was the best place to play!
Dad loves Finn, and Finn loves dad <3
I'm sure you'll spot a few more photo's of Finn in among the regulars...
FO's
Although I have achieved less than I would have liked in the last 3 months, due to the obvious distraction, there are still a fair few projects in this section:
You may recall that I was working on these when I posted my last update. I failed to realise that I was knitting from a 50g ball, and not 100g, therefore predictably ran out of yarn. I used some leftover yarn from another pair of socks to finish, and I'm perfectly happy with that, because these are for me, and nobody who might care is going to see anything other than the cuffs anyway.
The yarn I used for (most) of these is Regia Design Line by Arne & Carlos, in the colourway 03653. The pattern is my standard sock pattern (Which I have started to write up, but I can't promise I'll have it publishable any time soon, I'm sorry :( )
Remember that pink yarn that Finn tried to eat? It was bought for these. My eldest niece asked for some socks for her teddy bear, and said she'd like them to be pink, with white stars on. So I carefully measured her teddy bear's feet, and made these to fit. They also had the added bonus of being an entry into a really laid back KAL that the ShefKnit girls were having. For the Month of February, we were knitting socks. That was literally the only rule though. The socks could have already been cast on months ago, and never finished, they could be any pattern, and any size, and nobody even needed to actually finish a pair! The aim was really to kick start everyone's knitting mojo if they'd found themselves having a bit of a slump in January after all of the Christmas knitting.
The yarn I used for these was Regia My First Regia, in the colourway 01810. The pattern was entirely improvised.
Remember this little guy? I finished him! I'm quite pleased with him, even though his nose is a little flat, and his moustache a bit messy.
He was carved out of Bass wood (Lime wood?) as a kind of Father-Daughter bonding activity, loosely following the YouTube videos on carving little dudes by Doug Linker.
Do you remember this project? I cast it on to work on during Ring-a-Rosie's 22nd birthday party back in October, and I finally finished it in February. I didn't say at the time, but I had intended originally to knit the border from a skein of Ring-a-Rosie Flooty, in a beautifully offensive bright pink, thinking that it would highlight the pops of pink in the merino garter stitch section. However, as the garter stitch section got bigger, I began to realise that the pink didn't actually pop as much as I'd expected it to, and a bright pink ribbed section might not look as good as I'd thought. The more I knit, the more I thought that actually the reds, oranges, and browns, were the more dominant colour, and that a russet coloured rib section might look best. So off I went to Ring-a-Rosie's, and found this instead.
The yarns are Ring-a-Rosie Marvellous High Twist, in a One-of-a-kind colourway, and Juniper Moon Farm Herriot Fine, in the colourway "Redwood". The pattern is TGV (High Speed Knitting), by Susan Ashcroft.
I'm so sorry about the dark colour I used for this, and the fact that you can hardly see the pattern because of that! This is a fairly basic wash cloth, knit mostly to test a chart that I'd come up with for a penguin pattern. I had intended to pass this on to Dominey, as it was her mum who was looking for a charted penguin pattern, but in all the brain fog I forgot to do that, and I'm sure that Dominey's mum has found a better chart by now.
The yarn is King Cole Bamboo Cotton, in the colourway "Damson".
More socks for the February sock KAL, and also for Gemma, because she got either a new coat, or new boots (brain fog memory, sorry :( ) at Christmas, and wanted green socks to match, but all of the others that I've knit for her have been purple! Standard socks are a great basic pattern to work on when your brain is a bit fried though, so needing to make these was actually brilliant for me in February, when I couldn't concentrate on anything other than having a new dog!
The yarn for these is James C. Brett Funny Feetz, in the colourway FZ05.
I know it's a terrible photo, but the actual photo of my finished produce bags was one of those saved on my old phone's memory, and they look much better with actual produce in them, rather than just laid flat.
For a while now I've been working on decreasing my impact on the environment. We recycle, or compost roughly 80% of everything that we throw away now, and that can only be reduced further by reducing the number of single use plastics that can't be recycled that we bring into the house. One thing that's easy to stop using is pre-packaged fruit and veg, or the flimsy plastic produce bags that you get in the supermarket for fresh fruit and veg. All you need to do is take your own produce bags with you when you go shopping, the same as you do to carry the rest of your shopping if you don't want to keep buying those heavy duty plastic "bags for life".
So I crocheted a few really simple little draw-string bags, and keep them inside the canvas totes that we have for grocery shopping.
The yarn is King Cole bamboo Cotton, in the colourway "Damson", and the pattern is very loosely based on the Birds nest bag for yarn ends, by Victoria Stott.
As an aside, I'd advise against leaving yarn scraps out for birds to make nests from, unless you cut them up very small, they can actually become a hazard for chicks, who get tangled up in loops of yarn.
A friend of mine shared a link on Facebook asking for knitters to make Traffic Light Baby Hats for local neo-natal wards. I've made quite a few items, including hats, for premature babies before, but I'd never heard of this traffic light scheme, where each infant is given a hat at birth according to the level of risk to that child's life in their first few days, or weeks. Red hats for children needing the highest level of care, through to green for babies needing "only" the normal level of care for a newborn. A very basic ribbed hat pattern is provided in the link, in 3 different sizes (If you choose to make some of these yourself, please note that the pattern is written to be knit flat, if you choose to knit in the round, you will need to reduce the number of stitches cast on for the small, and large sizes by 2. If you choose to knit them flat, and you'd like a neat finish on all sizes, I'd recommend casting on 2 extra stitches for the medium size.) I made 4 of each size, in a mix of the 3 colours. They're currently all packaged up and ready to be posted.
I used Patons Smoothie DK in the colourways "Red", "Neon Peach", and "Grass Green".
One of my "New Year Resolutions" this year was to find time to do some spinning. Last year I made it to only 1 of the Travelling Spinners meet ups, which is terrible. So I wrangled my diary into allowing me to be up in Newcastle for the first Saturday in February, and I spent a lovely afternoon spinning the singles for this, and catching up with the girls. That turned out to be a very busy few days in the end! I drove up to Newcastle on the Friday, back to Sheffield on the Saturday night, spent Sunday playing our monthly RPG with friends, then on the Monday Stephen and I drove to the Yorkshire Dales to meet, and bring home Finn!
A few weeks later, if you live in the UK, you may recall that we had a brief, unreasonably warm few days. Over 20 degrees C in February (Note: For reasons, my laptop is running in Ubuntu, not Windows, and for some reason the unicode for the "degrees" character isn't working. This is annoying.) Anyway, I chose to take advantage of the crazy sunshine to sit out in the garden, with a cup of tea, and ply the yarn that I'd spun at the Travelling Spinners meet.
I ended up with 167 yards of roughly DK weight chain plied yarn. The original fibre was a blend of bluefaced leicester, tussah silk, and firestar, dyed by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "Speed of his Feet".
My final finished object so far this year is this tea cosy. Designed by me, specifically to fit this particular teapot, and knit in the very same handspun yarn that I'd just finished a few days earlier.
WIPs
As you can see, Finn tried to "help" me when I was taking photos of my current WIPs!
This is the current state-of-play with my mitred squares cushion cover. I'm afraid that I put it down when I started all of the socks I knit for the February KAL, and I haven't got around to picking it back up again. I'll have to finish it soon, because I want it to have pride of place on the sofa by the time Stephen's parents come to stay in May. Eventually I want to make several of these, but for some reason, their modular nature makes them addictive when I'm actively working on them, but means I have little imperative to pick it back up again when I've been forced to work on something else for a while.
The yarns used for this are a wide selection of hand-dyed 4-ply, dyed by a number of different dyers. With a certain amount of fear that I'll miss someone out, I'll try to list them all, with the 2 most represented first:
Yorkshire Dales Yarns, Ring-a-Rosie, Mothy & the Squid, Cuddlebums, All's Wool That Ends Wool, HeyJay, and Love Handdyed.
The black border is being knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signiature 4-ply, in the colourway "Liquorice".
These were the socks that I'd intended to be my primary project for the February sock KAL. It all seemed perfectly serendipitous to me that my January KnitCrate had contained a sock pattern that I really wanted to knit, and we were doing a sock-a-long starting on February 1st! I happily cast them on, then brought a dog home who loves the feel of wool in his mouth. He doesn't usually actually chew the yarn, but he will pick it up and carry it around if he gets the chance, as you can see he's trying to do in the photo above! Sometimes it's useful, if I drop my yarn on the floor, he'll pick it up and bring it back to me! But when I'm trying to take photos, or record ball band details on Ravelry, not so great! Though highly entertaining! None-the-less, I had to put these away for a while, and work on projects that were using cheaper yarn, and simpler patterns until Finn at least got used to me knitting regularly, which he has now, although he still thinks that anything on the floor, or spread out on the bed is fair game!
There's another problem with these socks, and that is the pattern itself. I should have known better before I cast it on to be honest, but it's so pretty I had to try. As well as the EDS, I have a second connective tissue disorder called Lipoedema/Lipidema, which means that although I have small feet, I have very large calves from just above the ankle. I stupidly started knitting the size of sock based on the measurement at my ankle, not that I think it would have made any difference if I'd decided to knit the largest size. The problem is that the sock is quite long, and it has to be for the full cable pattern to fit, but if I were to wear these socks, I'd never be able to pull them up and show off the pattern, I'd just have a thick roll of sock around my ankle. Which is why I designed my own sock pattern to deal with this, and rarely knit long socks for myself!
The easy solution to all of that is that I'm now knitting these socks for a friend who does have lovely shapely legs, and who I owe a great debt of thanks, as she is the person who put me in touch with the people who brought Finn and I together.
The yarn I'm using is Vidalana Ambient sock, in the colourway "Robin's Promise", and the pattern is Winter Light by Laura Fahlin. Both came in my January KnitCrate Sock Crate.
My final active WIP so far this year has been this, which I cast on on Mother's Day (In the UK, that was March 31st) as a gift to myself on my first Mother's Day as a mummy! I maintain that being adoptive mummy to a dog absolutely counts! It might not look like much, but this is the beginnings of a sweater! Which was another of my "resolutions", to knit more garments, especially since there are very few people who I'm willing to knit an entire garment for, and even fewer of those are adults, but mostly if I do knit a garment, it's for myself! Yes, this is a selfish knit! In gorgeous yarn!
It's not a fussy, or complicated pattern. Mostly stockinette, with a bit of shaping, and some ribbing detail, which is exactly what I want right now.
The yarn is Fyberspates Vivacious 4-ply, in the colourway "Plum Imps", and the pattern is Sel Gris, by Claudia Eisenkolb.
Stash Acquisition
Buckle up... There's a few things in here! I'll be as brief as I can with the descriptions, and I apologise now for some of the photos...
Juniper Moon Farm Herriot Fine, in the colourway "Redwood", bought specifically for the ribbed section of my latest TGV shawl when I realised that the bright pink silk/mohair that I'd planned to use wouldn't go as well as I'd thought.
4 Ring-a-Rosie mini-skeins to add to the collection for making mitred squares.
I didn't mention this in my last update, because I could still barely believe it was true! Black Elephant, which is a Sheffield based independent dye studio with a strong eco-friendly flavour, ran a giveaway on Instagram in the run up to Christmas, with the winner drawn on Christmas day. As I checked my social media on Christmas morning, and scrolled through to see my name in big letters, I literally thought I was hallucinating! I had to check about 5 times that it was real! 8 full skeins, a tote bag, and a pair of stitch keepers! And just look at those colours! Have you ever seen a prize with a colour palette so perfectly me?
I bought the 2 mini-skeins, and the red skein in the middle in the post-Christmas sale, and everything arrived together in January. I'll list the yarn bases, and the colourways, for you, but I'm afraid they won't be in order, as I arranged the skeins for the photo in a way that I thought might show the colourways best, rather than paying attention to the weight, or composition of the yarn.
Merino Nylon Sock, in the colourways "Simulation", and "Lights Out".
Merino Sport, in the colourway "Moulin Rouge".
DK Merino, in the colourways "Moulin Rouge", "Arabela", "Monsoon", "Love Buzz", "Little Miss Sunshine", and "Arlabdrift".
Sock Minis, in speckled pink, and pale blue.
December KnitCrate Sock crate. Vidalana Ember Sport, in the colourway "Holly".
This crate also included a special KnitCrate pin badge, which you can see in more detail in a later photo.
Homespun Wonders January Mythical Creatures Yarn box with sparkle sock yarn, in the theme, and colourway "Water Dragon".
You've heard me wax lyrical about these yarn boxes before, so you know how much I love them. Well this year instead of just treating myself to one on my birthday, I'm going to buy myself one every month, if I can afford it. In order to be able to afford it, I'm going to curb my spending on other things, such as make-up, chocolate, and even other yarn!
Chromatic Yarns, by The Corner of Craft, "Knitical Role" mystery yarn club, inspired by the shenanigans of the Critical Role RPG Vlog, January edition - Sturdy Sock in the colourway "Cow-Moo-Flage"
I'd hoped to be able to collect all of these, but between financial constraints, and this yarn club being very limited edition, I've not managed to keep that up :(
January KnitCrate Sock crate. Vidalana Ambient Sock, in the colourway "Robin's Promise".
Cuddlebums micro-skein (10g) bundles, superwash merino nylon sock, and superwash merino nylon sparkle sock, in a variety of rainbow colourways. Bought in the January sale, for my mitred squares.
Homespun Wonders February Mythical Creatures yarn box with sparkle sock yarn, in the theme, and colourway "Butterfly Fairy".
Chromatic Yarns, by The Corner of Craft, Knitical Role mystery yarn club, February edition - Sturdy sock, in the colourway "Don't be a Sad Bear, be a Happy Bear".
February KnitCrate Sock Crate, Knitologie Cosy Sock (MCN), in the colourway "Snow Stylish".
Ring-a-Rosie Marvellous High Twist, 2 full skeins, 8 mini-skeins, all in One-of-a-kind colourways, because Barbara always seems to release a huge new batch of freshly dyed yarn around my dad's birthday in February!
Regia My First Regia, in white. The matching pink skein had already been partially used to knit teddy bear socks, and at the time of taking this photo, was being mauled by a savage cocker spaniel.
Wildcraft Fibres March 2011 fibre club, BFL and Stellina, in the colourway "Dorset Heath", de-stashed by Sue at the February Travelling Spinners meet.
Sheep of Many Colours colourwork book, including patterns for depicting many different species of sheep. Bought at the February Travelling Spinners meet, as Sue of Sheepfold is a regular Travelling Spinner. (Different Sue from the Sue who de-stashed her fibre into my stash though!)
Patons Smoothie DK, in the colourways "Red", "Neon Peach", and "Grass Green".
Bought specifically for the Traffic Light baby hats, as I own very little acrylic, and what I did own before this didn't include bright traffic light colours.
Homespun Wonders March Mythical Creatures Yarn Box with sparkle sock yarn, in the theme, and colourway "Sea Unicorn".
With additional skeins from February in the photo, because I forgot to take a photo of everything when I first opened it, and I'd put everything away properly by the time I realised, so you just get the cropped end of a photo that included everything I'd bought this year. Sorry about that! (By "put away" I of course mean that I'd hung up the decorations in my stash cubby, filled the tin with stitch markers, written in the notebook, eaten one of the sweeties, and lit a candle in the wax melt burner, as well as put the yarn in it's appropriate storage basket)
March KnitCrate Sock crate. Vidalana Shimmer Sock, in the colourway "Tangles".
Extraneous Stuff
A better look at the KnitCrate pin badge, plus 2 badges from my Homespun Wonders Advent calendar, plus another pin badge that declares me a member of the "Everyday Knitter" Facebook group.
In case you wanted to know what the teapot under the tea cosy looks like. Bought on impulse during a dog walk to Roche Abbey (Stephen can walk there from our house. I definitely can't! So I drive and meet him and Finn there!) Most of my teapots are quite small and delicate. This one is good and chunky, for a proper brew, in a big mug!
Need I say more?
Available from Yarnistry, They're proving quite popular, but they're being re-stocked regularly if you miss out at first.
Penguins!
Yes! Well done if you've stuck around until this point!
Or, you're a slacker, and you've scrolled on by everything after the cute dog pics, just to see some cute penguin pics.
That's fair I suppose!
The top photo was taken shortly after receiving these gifts when I got back to Sheffield after Christmas. The bottom photo was taken yesterday because I didn't know if I had a photo with these things in it. I was half right. Also, I don't have a picture editor on this laptop, because Ubuntu, and I don't really understand it. So I haven't been able to crop off the bits of that photo that show the other crap that lives on Stephen's mantel piece. Don't judge me.
So, Christmas gift penguins! From Kelly, Liz, Kelly's mum, my friend Kate, Krissy, and her kids (2 of my god children). I refuse to burn the candle penguin, but I did eat the chocolate ones. I should have turned the glowy lights on the ones from Krissy and the kids, because they're pretty, but I forgot.
I knocked my water bottle off the table next to my nest. Twice. The first time the spout just loosened a bit, but you could still use it if you were careful. The second time the spout came off. I went looking for a replacement, and I found this. Who doesn't need a pingu water bottle?
Please excuse the junk that lives on the table next to my nest.
I know that it's a Christmas card, and that Christmas came and went months ago. But I'm not sending this to anyone anyway. It's by a lady called SamDrawsThings, and she is the creator of my favourite faery being - the Comfort Fairy. He's a winged fairy dog, who brings snuggles and hot chocolate when you're feeling low.
I have the most marvellous friends, who will see penguin related stuff when about their daily lives, think of me, and bring it to me. Dominey is one such friend, and she brought me this penguin pashmina. In exchange, she met Finn, who tried to steal her yarn.
If you spend too much time driving back and forth between cities on the motorway, eventually you will buy penguins in a motorway service station. This is not the first time this has happened. I doubt it will be the last.
You may also have noted that there is a penguin blanket in the background of many of these photos. This may, or may not be the same penguin blanket that I bought before Christmas, because I have had to buy a second identical blanket. You see, I like to allow Finn up on the furniture, but I'm well aware that I don't have the energy required to keep up with the amount of cleaning this could involve. I've already had to buy a new vacuum, because Stephen's ancient Dyson couldn't cope. Anyway, Finn likes the penguin blanket, and we use it to protect the sofa, but it requires washing on a regular basis, so I bought a second so that I could keep them on rotation. However, Now that Finn's elbow is fully healed, he is able to jump onto the bed without assistance, meaning that we can't stop him from doing so when he and Stephen return from a muddy early morning walk, and I am still in bed, and he has the zoomies, and wants to be excitable at mummy, with stinky, dirty feet, on her clean white bedding... So now one of the blankets lives on the bed. I may need to buy a 3rd...
I shall sign off with one last adorable photo of Finn, "helping" with my knitting:
Night night my dears, or more likely good morning, given the time! I'll try to be back in less than 3 months!
