Well, That was an eventful few months!

It seems to be November.  I'm not entirely sure how that happened!  3 full months since my last update.  Very full months for the UK.

I can't really do any update without acknowledging the death of Queen Elizabeth II just a couple of weeks after my last post, and just 3 months after celebrating her platinum jubilee.  I'm not a royalist by any means, but it was difficult not to have a certain fondness for Elizabeth Windsor. I was surprised at the extent of my own feeling when I learned of it, and there are many in this country who mourn her loss deeply.  King Charles III has much to live up to, especially in times like these, when more and more people question the validity of a monarchy, and the rampantly unequal distribution of wealth.

There is also the fact that in the last 3 months we have had as many different Prime Ministers!  At a time when we desperately need stability, we have anything but!  More than 1 in 5 people in the UK live in poverty.  Almost 3 quarters of those households have at least one working adult.  We are the sixth largest economy in the entire world.  I do not understand how to reconcile these things.  I do not understand how our government can see these things, and yet continue to make the decisions that they do. Even though there are few members of the current governing party who haven't had a go at the premiership left by now...

Meanwhile, our split from the European Union continues to cause endless additional struggles for the British people, while benefits seem ever elusive. Russia's war on Ukraine continues, and as the weather turns colder the effects on the Ukrainian people, both those who remain in their home country, and those who have been forced to flee it, will find life harder than ever. The climate remains in crisis, and world leaders fly hundreds of miles to make pretty speeches, and promises that are entirely inadequate yet even those they know they can't keep. The football world cup takes place in a country that is entirely unsuitable in climate, human rights record, and attitude to sexuality, yet Fifa punishes only those who speak out against these injustices.

Is it any wonder then that increasingly I find myself disappearing into my hobbies?  

So, with that very swift catch up on the state of the country I live in, let's get onto the fun bit!

Finished Objects

Purple speckled jumper

This was my only work in progress during my last update, and as you can see, I have now finished it.  It fits very well, and when worn the difference in colour caused by the density of speckles in different skeins is barely noticeable. I've been too self-conscious to get any photos of me wearing it, so I do have to apologise for the poor photo.

The pattern for this is the one I created for using the mini-skeins of a yarn advent calendar, but I haven't been able to grade, or test for sale yet.

The yarn is superwash sock be Mothy and the Squid, in the colourway "Frozen Flower".

Rainbow socks

I started knitting these in August, because my only other project was the purple jumper, and that had become quite bulky to transport, but we were going to see a 15th century joust at Bolsover Castle, and I needed a project that I could knit in the car while Stephen drove us there and back, and that I could knit while watching the jousting.  Socks are always the perfect project for this sort of thing, as they're small, and simple enough that they require little attention.

The pattern is my standard sock pattern, and the yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply, in the colourway "Rum Paradise".

Hot pink bucket hat.

In the Stash Acquisition section of my last update, there was a single skein of alarmingly pink yarn.  That yarn was bought specifically to make this hat.  This hat was made because my Godson Oliver wanted a hat like the singer from the Ukrainian band that won Eurovision earlier this year. It's not exactly the same, mostly because I think that that particular hat was probably made from a woven fabric, but it's the right colour, and the right shape, so Olly loves it!

The pattern is The Gigi hat, by Margotchien, and the yarn is Cascade 220, in the colourway "Hot Pink".

Purple stripy socks

The problem with always knitting socks during our gaming sessions, is that our gaming sessions are quite long, so I find myself finishing each pair of socks remarkably quickly!  Fortunately, there is no shortage of need for socks. This particular pair kept my hands busy through the end of September, and the beginning of October.

As always, my own pattern, and the yarn is Opal Regenwald 4-fach, in the colourway "Die Diva".

Black ankle socks with purple loopy cuffs

I thought that perhaps with the rising cost of... everything, but in particular heating, it might be wise to make myself some slipper socks for especially cold nights this winter.  I have plenty of odds and ends of yarn with no particular purpose in my stash, so I used some of that, and my experience with knitting many socks, et voila!

The yarns are Rico Design Essentials Merino DK, in the colourway "Black", and Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino DK, in the colourway "Black Cherry".

Tiny knitted purse on a keyring

At Bakewell Wool Gathering (more on that later!), I bought a little kit from The Knitting Gift Shop to make this little notions purse, so small that it fits on a keyring.  I'm not usually fond of kits, but as it turned out, this one was exactly what I needed when my mood was at an especially low ebb a month or so back.  I couldn't face anything on my to do list, not even socks, but I could do this.  Sometimes almost immediate gratification is what is needed.

I have managed to squeeze a darning needle, tape measure, and stitch markers into this little purse, even though it is hardly bigger than a 50p piece! Fortunately I don't need to add scissors, as I wear my yarn cutter pendant almost everywhere.

Orange stripy socks

Stephen always needs new comfortable socks.  You can see in this photo how swollen his ankles can end up at the end of the day, so socks that are made especially for him really are the best.  

I chose the colours because I think they look like fire, although it turns out that they are actually based on a butterfly!

The yarn is Opal Butterfly, in the colourway "Erster Lichtblick"

Crocheted giraffe, with added cocker spaniel

Demi-Leigh loves giraffes in the way that I love penguins. Last year she sent me a photo of a crocheted giraffe, and asked if I might be able to make one.  I did warn her that my crochet skills are limited!  But I also went and found the pattern, and studied it, and eventually I actually made it.  Fortunately amigurimi is relatively simple, as it consists primarily of only one stitch, so I think I managed a reasonable approximation of how it's supposed to look. Demi was really happy with it, which is the important thing.

Finn also liked it.  I did not let him have it.

The pattern is Gregory the Giraffe, by Nannaju patterns, and the yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, in the colourways "Camel", and "Gold".

The crown of a grey ribbed beanie hat

This is an unusual angle to photograph a hat from, I know, but one ribbed beanie looks much like another, and the reason I chose this specific pattern is the way the decreases for the crown create this lovely cross pattern.  

As I had made a hat for Oliver, it was only fair that I make one for Finley as well.  Demi has played rugby for many years, and the boys, and even Gemma, have also joined her rugby club.  I thought that a close fitting beanie hat would be just the thing for keeping him warm during winter training sessions.

The pattern is Krona Hat, by Arianna Soloway, and the yarn is Caroline DK by Third Vault Yarns, in the colourway "Death".

Monochrome socks

Having made gifts for the rest of the family, it only seemed fair that I also make something for Gemma.  Gemma always loves socks, and she always loves grey, so this was an easy decision to make.  I even bought this yarn with the intention of using it to make socks for Gemma, knowing that she would love it.

The yarn is James C. Brett Funny Feetz, in the colourway "FZ04".

Grey doggy jumper

Gemma and Demi adopted a lovely little puppy called Gracie earlier this year.  She's utterly adorable!  And of course she couldn't miss out on receiving her own gift! 

Finn rarely wears his jumper, he doesn't need it to keep him warm, which I knew when I made it.  I made Finn his jumper mostly in order to keep him clean when our walks take us through mud.  The problem with that is taking the muddy jumper off when we get home spreads the dirt nearly as far as just letting him walk in the mud would have!

I think that Gracie may benefit more from hers, assuming it fits, as she's much smaller, so much more likely to feel the cold.

The pattern is Cabled Dog Sweater, by Cricket Toomy, and the yarn is James C. Brett Aztec aran, in colourway "AL10".

WIP's

Partially complete multi-coloured shawl

This is my primary project at present.  It's a shawl that I bought the pattern for at The Wool Monty earlier this year, and I'd been looking forward to making it ever since.  I have to admit that I regret that somewhat now!

It's not through any fault with the pattern, it's only that it is written line by line, but my brain struggles to follow that.  I much prefer a chart, or a set of rules I can follow. I have made so many mistakes in this that if I finish each row with a stitch count within 5 of what it should be, I am considering that a win!  So far, my mistakes don't appear to be noticeable, so much so that even I can't find where I've gone wrong in order to repair the error, so I'm hoping that means that when I cast off and it's possible to lay the entire shawl out properly the mistakes will remain invisible.

The pattern is Planar Shift Shawl, by Lola Johnson, and the yarns are Sturdy Sock by Chromatic yarns, in the colourways "Cow-moo-flage", and "Don't be a sad bear, be a happy bear!", and Companion 4-ply by Third Vault Yarns, in the colourways "Lachesis", and "Decima".

A tiny bit of sock on the needles

Another pair of socks for Stephen, and a portable project for our holiday next week.  

We always try to go away for a few days to celebrate Stephen's birthday, which is at the end of November, but last year our holiday was cancelled due to Eye-mageddon. The year before that nobody had any holidays due to Covid.  So this year we are very much looking forward to our few days away in Wales, visiting castles, and walking Finn in beautiful places.

Holidays require portable knitting for in the car when Stephen is driving, and for when I have to take a rest while exploring, and of course, we all know that socks are the ideal portable knitting project.

The yarn for this pair is Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball, in the colourway "Herbstwind".

Stash Acquisition

Deep blue and orange mini-skeins

August and September mini-skeins from the Made by Penguins Yarnologist club.  

This blue is incredible!  It's so deep and saturated, it practically glows!  I'm not the worlds greatest fan of orange, but these 2 colours go beautifully together!

3 balls of yellow/brown yarn

These were bought for making Demi's giraffe.  I confess that I went into The Foundry Works (my new LYS) and they had a crocheted giraffe very similar to the one I had a pattern for on display, so I asked Claire (the shop owner) to point me in the direction of the yarn that giraffe was made from.  My pattern said I'd need 2 balls of the lighter yarn, and one of the darker yarn, but I failed to take note of the size of the balls it was talking about.  As it turned out, one ball of the lighter colour was more than enough.  

They're all Stylecraft Special DK, and the colourways are "Camel" (the lighter yarn), and "Gold".

Bakewell Wool Gathering

As I gave The Wool Monty its own section, I think it's only fair I do the same for Bakewell Wool Gathering. I met up with Becky and Krissy when I got there, and these are the things I bought there this year:

Bakewell Wool Gathering Haul

I deliberately kept my actual yarn purchases to a minimum, as I am still trying to use more yarn than I buy this year, so the only yarn I bought was a single ball of rather garishly coloured aran, that I intend to use for creating crocheted granny squares for a long-term blanket project, and 2 highly variegated 20g mini-skeins, plus a matched pair of rainbow micro-skeins intended to create a stripe of colour in plain socks, by All Wool that End's Wool, I also bought one of their yarn cat pin badges.  The final yarn I bought was in the little kit for creating the keyring purse you saw earlier, and that did include the yarn necessary for making the purse.

My main purchase on that day though was a kit for creating a needle felted picture, plus a device with multiple needles to make felting a large area much easier.  This is from Little Gem Felts.  I haven't started on this yet, because I suspect that I'm going to need to clear space on the dining table in order to do it properly.

As well as the little purse kit, I bought a steel spiral cable needle from The Knitting Gift Shop.  I've been lusting over the sterling silver spiral cable needles by Fizzy Stitches for ages now, but with the postage costs from inside the EU being so high now (thanks Brexit), I just haven't been able to justify the cost.  The steel spiral isn't as well finished, or as smooth, but it does do the same job perfectly adequately.  As a cable needle anyway, I'm not sure I'd use this one for the alternate purpose of shawl pin.  In case you're wondering what the purpose of a spiral cable needle is, here's a photo of this one in use:

Spiral cable needle holding 3 C6F stitches

Finally, I bought another couple of pin badges from Snuggly Stars, one of a sheep, and one declaring that "Books are Magic".

However, this wasn't all that I acquired at Bakewell.  Firstly, there's a couple of extra bits in the photo above that I haven't mentioned, and that's because one of them really belongs in the photo I'm about to put below this text, and the other - hand cream - was given to me by Krissy, as she got it in a mystery goody bag that she'd bought from Rosie's Moments, but her skin is very sensitive, so she thought she'd better not risk any product she's unfamiliar with.

Goody bag contents

As this year was the 10th anniversary of the Wool Gatherings, for the first 50 people who pre-ordered their tickets online, there was a goody bag!  I thought I had ordered my ticket quite late, so I was quite surprised when I got an email the day before the event telling me that a goody bag would be waiting for me when I arrived!

I'm finding it hard to believe that it's really been 10 years since this event started!  I've been to every single one! In fact, one of my earliest of these blog posts was about my visit in 2014!

The bag itself was a sturdy tote, and mine contained a magazine, a 50g bag of black cheviot raw fleece, donated by Hawkshaw Sheep, samples of locally made fudge, bakewell slice cakes, artisan soap, wooden buttons, beading needles, bulb pins, stitch markers, button badges and a keyring with yarny slogans on them, and a ball of Lang Yarns Seta Tweed.  

Krissy also got one of these bags, and the contents of hers was very similar, but not identical.  There was supposed to be some sort of arrangement for swapping any items that weren't suitable, but that didn't actually seem to be available on the day.  This did mean that I ended up with extra beading needles and bulb pins, as Krissy doesn't use either of these things.

I had a lovely day out with my friends, chatting with other yarnies, and that was the most important thing I think.

As I've been doing in the handful of other posts I've written this year, I'm including a running total of how much yarn I've acquired, versus how much yarn I've used.  The yarn in this post amounts to 1455m, which when added to my total for the months preceding this gives me a grand total of 9355m

Ravelry thinks I have used 8773m so far this year. So I'm just 582m short of a net 0 change in the size of my stash this year, which also means I've caught up about 1700m on where I was at when I last posted.

Yarn Adjacent

In my last post I mentioned that I'd bought a French knitting dolly because I couldn't find the one that my dad had made for me many years ago. Well, since then I've been going through the last few boxes that needed to be unpacked since I moved house (I don't recommend having other people pack up 90% of your belongings for you, because it's the middle of a global pandemic, and you're not actually allowed to be in the house that you're moving out of! It vastly increases the length of time it will take you to unpack at the other end!) Anyway, I have located the French knitting device that my dad made for me!

Hand carved French knitting device

I can hardly call it a "dolly", as it was never intended to resemble a person.  However, there was a natural knot in the wood that dad carved this from, and as he sanded it to create a snag-free finish, he noticed that the knot resembled a very smiley face.  So dad being dad, he inked the mouth and eyes to make the face stand out, which turns this otherwise very smooth, but unremarkable lump of wood into something strangely anthropomorphic and utterly adorable!  Then he made a simple leather disk with holes for the pegs to go through that can be used to hold a partially completed length of cord in place without losing any stitches, and because of the little face, this bit of leather somehow appears to be a hat!

I miss him so much.

Finn

My dog is so cute, you must all admire and adore him.

Damp cocker spaniel in a doggy dressing gown

SEE!!!

Nothing is cuter than that little face!!!

Very close snoot

The snoot MUST BE BOOPED!

Boop it!

Penguins!

I doubt that any of you come here for the semi-political rants, most of you are probably here for the knitting, but if you're not here for that either, you must be here for the cute doggo photos, and the penguins.

I shall try not to disappoint.

"Space" penguins manicure

A month or so ago, Finn's Fairy Dog Mother - Boo - introduced me to Oh My Gosh nails.  They sell nail wraps, which I'd never tried, but they looked a lot quicker and easier than my standard gel manicures.  So I went to take a look and discovered this particular set of wraps.

They're called "Space Penguins", and basically they are penguins dressed up as characters from the original Star Wars films.  I love penguins.  I love Star Wars. It was a no-brainer already, but then even better, all proceeds from the sale of this particular design go to a charity called Shooting Star that works to enrich the lives of seriously ill children.  I pretty much had to get them.

Grey fleece penguin blanket

I know that buying blankets when I am in the middle of knitting or crocheting several more might seem silly, but those blankets will take ages to be finished, and they will not withstand the frequent attentions of an excitable cocker spaniel (arthritic senior dog my arse!).  Meanwhile, winter is coming, and no normal person can afford to heat their house with gay abandon this year, so blankets for the sofa are a necessity.  Fortunately for me, fleecy blankets are easily available with a penguin design on them.

Stephen has his very own fleecy sofa blanket.  It has dinosaurs on it.

Chocolate penguin biscuits

I'm fairly sure that I've had these, or something very similar to them, in previous years, and I probably shared photos of them with you then too.  How can I be expected to pass up the opportunity for little chocolate shortbread biscuits in the shape of penguins though?

Penguin stickers

In my last update I showed you a mini printer that looks like a penguin, and explained how I intended to use the stickers it produces in a sort of to do list journal.  Well, I've done exactly that!  So far I've been reasonably good at keeping it up to date too.  Using it to write my daily chores list really helps, and makes it that much easier to record other things, such as how long I've slept for, how bad my pain is each day, how bad my fatigue is each day, and how my mood is doing.  Most days I even manage a brief write up of how my day went too.

Of course the entire journal is much cheerier if I decorate it with stickers, so I bought a massive selection of penguin stickers to add to my journal.

I also added a few of them to my collection of laptop stickers:

Laptop with many stickers on it, mostly penguins

The penguin in the middle, with the mug of tea, and wearing a dressing gown, is by Kate Elford, and has been there for quite some times, but all of the other penguins came from the selection I bought for my journal.

Well, that is it for now.  I'm aware that I've been somewhat distracted at times because I had season 2 of Bridgerton on in the background while I've been writing this (I've seen it before, but it's good enough to re-watch many times), but if you include the time I spent sorting out photos before I even started, this particular update has taken me a little over 13 hours to complete.  It's currently 11:20am, and no, I have not slept.

I will be back in a few days to post my traditional pre-advent introduction to this years Advent Adventure, but I shall be in Wales for the first couple of days in Advent, so my first actual Advent post won't happen until I am home again.

Happy weekend my lovelies!