Here Emily is modeling one of my first knitted items for her - again it's taken her ages to grow into it! It was such a simple little poncho to make (pattern from Simply Knitting magazine ages ago!)
Next Emily is modeling Mummy's Little Arrowhead Shawlet, yes I am aware it is more her size than mine but it is as the pattern stated. I do kind of wish I'd made it longer then the pattern suggested but at the time was far too impatient to see the finished item so cast off and hoped for the best during the miracle of blocking!
And some close ups of the shawlet (pattern from 'Sweet Somethings - staff projects' on Interweave Knits website).
Don't you just love the colours in the yarn? This was one of my cones of 4ply from the Colinette Millshop so am not sure what colourway it is - lots of plums and berry shades so may be 'Summer Berries'? And plenty of yarn left!
Again using up some of my Colinette stash and seeing as the weather has been getting colder I made myself some mittens using this pattern from kpixie. They're not quite as long as they should be as I misread the pattern but the size is OK for my hands - nice and snug and warm! I had forgotten how fiddly mittens were to do things with - I don't think I've had mittens since I was little!
I've also finally made some socks! Again for Emily (due to the fact that won some sock wool on eBay and hadn't realised that it was a 50g ball and not enough for me!) and with more wool left over for another pair for her! Not bad out of one small ball. This was the best shot I could get with her wearing them - not great I know but she just would not stay still for me! These were made to measure as well as I couldn't find a small enough pattern for her (or rather it was a case of either too small or too large) so too measurements and worked the socks out using Knitty's Universal Toe-up Sock formula.
And in case you wanted a better look here you go... along with the sock yarn I won.
Now... enough Knitting, on to my Spinning!
I've been enjoying the spinning loads and have aquired a pile of lovely bits to play with over the month but I'll tell you about them later - I think you've enough to look at so far as it is! Below you see all the yarn I've produced so far:
The white/cream is some piled Cheviot in it's natural colour, it's roughly DK to Aran weight but is not overly evenly spun - there are slubby bits here and there.
These two day-glow looking yarns aren't really as bright as them seem. The flash has seemed to make the colours glow so much. I'm not entirely sure what type of wool this is, Mum and I think it is Merino just by the shine to it and the softness it has but I could be wrong. The predominately red ball was spun and piled first and as a result is less even and has more odd slubs here and there than the greeny-blue one has which is actually quite even. I meant to photograph them before I wound them into balls but I forgot so you don't get a really good idea of the colours but if I tell you that they're both a mix of red, yellow, green and blue you'll get an idea. Not that you couldn't really guess what colours they were anyway!
And what will I make with just over 100g of again DK / Aran weight yarn? Why a bright winter hat for Emily! You will probably note that I am finally evening the scores a bit an Emily is now getting more knitting done for her! And despite my early start there is still Christmas knitting to be done - not too demanding projects but still I shall leave you here and get back to my current WIP's:
- Fluffy pink hooded cardi for Emily knitted top down and in one piece (no sewing up - hooray!);
- Red Marble Metis for myself;
- Autumnal cardi for Emily (needs frogging a bit but yarn is so awful to pick up stitches with that am avoiding that task for a bit!);
- Tank Girl top from one of the Stitch n Bitch book that is still waiting to be finished - may just be finished in time for next Summer!
- And of course the Christmas knits which I won't mention here in case of Spies!!
So far so good though, I've put new shelves up for all my books and have had a rethink of my storage solutions that is a better use of space but it's not easy to fit all this into the day whilst looking after DD who is being seriously active and curious about everything. And on top of all that I've been trying to keep the wood pile filled up and sawing up logs every other day, or so it seems! See what I meant about who the DIYer in our house is!
This one was done on the hob and sat simmering for half an hour like something out of Macbeth: "Hubble Bubble.... etc" as Mum kept saying in suitable old crone tones (not her normal voice I hasten to add before you get the wrong idea!). This was meant to be 'Sky Blue' according to the recipe book (yes, you can get a recipe book for the dyes!) but looks more like a Sea Green. Anyway the general plan is to use it for a shawl of some sort, not sure which yet. Mum also has 4 hanks of hand dyed in a lovely shade but I'll leave it to her to tell you about that.
I have been trying to fit some knitting in as well as everything else and have some FO's to show that are in the process of being blocked, etc so no photo of that just yet but really I'm itching to get my hands on my wheel! 