In the Making...

I did get a few nice knitting bits for Christmas, mainly books this year. I'm really loving all of these. From left to right - Botanical Knits 2 by Alana Dakos, New Lace Knitting by Romi Hill, Sock Architecture by Lara Neal and Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook by Felicity Ford. The first two are pattern books and there are some really beautiful ones included. Knitsonik is a self published book that is just gorgeous and really interesting. I've really enjoyed reading this one. The Sock Architecture book is very good and I think my favourite one, since it's the one I've used the most so far. I've started a toe up Dydas with the leftover WYS yarn from my Holly socks. A lot of the patterns have toe up and toe down versions. There are options for different toe lengths and whether you want gussets or not. There's a lot of info and you could easily use the patterns as bases for putting your own patterns onto. Over New Year, I started a st...

This is a bit slow in the writing but last week, we had a Knitmas event at A Good Yarn . Kate and Ruth from Practical Publishing came for the evening to give a talk. There was games, food and fun. Kate Heppell is the editor of Knit Now magazine and her talk was on the process of making a design from inception to publication in the magazine. It was very interesting and they brought lots of lovely samples to show us. We had a prize draw and a couple of competitions – how many stitches can you cast on in a minute and how many rows can you knit blindfolded in two. Lots of hilarity ensued as you can imagine. We’d prepared lots of knitting kits and many of them had a Christmas theme. There’s an advent calendar in the shop for customers this month. The first customer that spends the first £10 of the day gets to open the calendar. I had a peek – the prizes are good. The window display this year is pretty cool. Every...

I bought (among many other things) a kit from Sue Stratford at Yarndale. She has many gorgeous and sweet kits. I got the Chunky Holly kit. I quickly got started and after only a couple of nights work. I have a fabulous chunky holly. And if you can see her hiding behind the berries, a wee little mouse. All the materials are included in the kit. The little mouse is made from angora, so she is lovely and fluffy. One interesting surprise was because of the sewing down the centre of the stuffed leaf, it’s mouldable. The leaves stay in the position that you put them in. There’s a range of other Christmas based kits too. Including a chunky robin and a Christmas tree tea cosy . If you’re based around Cleethorpes, then you can get your own kit from A Good Yarn or if you are elsewhere in the world, then you can get them directly from Sue Stratford at the Knitting Hut It has quite an interesting construction that makes them look so good with the cent...

Last year, I showed you all the Christmas Tree decorations . This year, it's the turn of the fabric decorations. There is quite a bit of Christmas bunting around the house but found it difficult to get a good photograph, so you'll have to imagine how pretty it looks! I did make some shelf bunting for the mantlepiece in the lounge.  The tree is in a different position this year, which gives us a bit more room but big downside is I can't easily get to the knitting books in the case behind it! I made a Christmas quilt that comes out a lot earlier than the rest of the decorations (at the start of Advent). It was hand pieced from lots of Christmas fabric scraps and machine quilted with a radiating star. The most recent addition to the tree is a wee cheesy Christmas jumper - decorated with beads, sparkly thread and embroidery. The mini coat hanger was a struggle to make but it had to be done. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Y...

Ducks.... Socks... And one very cute reindeer! Perhaps, I should say a little more than that. The ducks are from Mary Jane Mucklestone's 150 Scandinavian Knitting Designs  and I'm designing a sock around it. I did Mary Jane's workshop  recently and was inspired to try some patterns out.There will be some gansey-like texture in there and at least two rows of ducks. It's been frogged a bit because I keep changing my mind. There's a good chance when you see it next time, they'll look different again. The socks are made with Regia Design Line by Erika Knight  and made for giant feet.  They're plain vanilla socks that I carry around with me, so they don't get as much knitting time in one go. One Christmas present down....so many more to go. And the reindeer is the start of a King Cole Christmas jumper . When he's finished, he'll have a lovely red pompom for his nose. I need to make two though. The one in the picture is...

I had some really wonderful surprises from my family this Christmas. I had lots of lovely knitting/spinning gifts. Some very helpful knitting books. And some gorgeous spinning fibre and some Knitpro Cubix needles. Going clockwise, starting with the braid, it is 100% BFL - Enjoy the Ride from Countess Ablaze . The others are from HilltopCloud , 100g Yellow Batts - shetland, merino & camel, and a 35g Frog Prince Batt and 100g Hand Blended Frog Prince Roving. And my best knitting present of all was made by my niece. I love it. Though, not sure what the warning is about, perhaps flying needles and balls of yarn! I'm sure I'm not a dangerous knitter...

I can finally reveal the knitted projects that were made for Christmas gifts. The first is a Neat Ripple Cushion made for my Mum. It's the Neat Ripple Pattern  by Lucy of Attic24. I made an 18" cushion.  The yarn is Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK  and there is such a lovely array of colours to choice from. It lends itself well to crochet and I used it in my African Flower Bucket Bag I crocheted one piece 18" by about 42" then folded over and crocheted together on the edges and a few tiny buttons to close it. Also, Mum got a pair of fingerless mitts that are my own design. I used Rowan Pima Cotton DK , which is beautiful yarn and made a lovely soft fabric but it was a little tricky to work with in fair isle. It has lots of different elements, broken ribbing, vikkel braids, fair isle, corrugated ribbing and an I-cord bind off.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I thought I'd share my Christmas tree with you! I've made a few decorations for the tree. This flat ceramic bauble is double-sided and from the photo above you can see the Christmas tree on the other side. A ceramic glazed santa Hardanger embroidered decoration and it's filled with cloves so it smells very Christmassy Secret Garden folded fabric blocks with lucet cord and beaded tassels And, it's not just me. These are Mr's contributions, a wood turned bauble and a star for the top of the tree which is made from white leather (a strange material for a star but it looks nice) These are a few tree decorations that friends have made for me over the years. Going through them all, I've realised there is not one knitted decoration. That will be something I'll have to remedy for next year!

Already for that mince pie making marathon on Christmas Eve. A quick little plate I did at my local Ceramics studio this week.

Alas, it's been awhile between blogging yet again. Apologies. The latest all consuming project has been a commissioned Christmas Jumper for a friend. She's always wanted a rather naff sweater along the same lines as what Bridget Jones wore in the film. She's very tall and thin so it had to be a very long jumper too. After a bit of searching I couldn't find any ready made patterns that filled the brief so it had to be a design from scratch - which was daunting but also a lot of fun. It had to be long and include a reindeer and snowflakes and be as tacky as possible - hopefully the finished product does all that. I took her to my local yarn shop and we she bought the shop out with lots of bright and sparkly wool - I take no responsibility whatsover on the rather interesting colour choices! There's a cheeky bit of holly on the back as well as fair isle cuffs. There's a few more details on my project page on Ravelry.