Blue Blanket

This blanket was inspired by the Wendy Blanket pattern but with my own twist and was made for my friend to celebrate her 40th birthday. I used up a lot of stash in various shades of blue and it took about 6 weeks to make it. I had to have a crochet break after making this as it damn near broke my hand! I had an RSI injury for a few months and i still can't crochet intensively for very long. BUT it was worth it.

Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

Stage Four

FINISHED!!

Blocking

My favourite view *LOVE*

Granny Square Ripples pt.2

strips finished and waiting for a joining plan

Further rippling granny adventures!
Once i'd got the ornage strip made, as you can see i went on to make 3 more in different colours. Great, i thought, now i just join them together and it's all hunky dory. Except it's not is it... The only way they are going to join together is if they are staggered because i hadn't followed a pattern i hadn't realised that they would either all need a traingle at one end or alternate stripes would need a traingle at both ends!!
DOH!


After a bit of brain racking i decided to fill in the gaps with cream join-as-you-go granny squares and i am really pleased that i did as i like the way it makes the zig zags of colour really POP!

gaps filled with granny squares

Once they were joined it was just a matter of adding a border and hey presto!
One granny square ripple blanket.

i settled on the central strip colour for the border

I wanted to downplay the very bright pink a little bit so the border is constructed of half teble rows in cream and plae pink and double crochet in the bright pink 

that is a very bright pink!!

 I am enormously happy with my concoction and have decided to offer it for sale at the Crafter's Barn where i have a little shop :)

Granny Square Ripple

Goodness, it's a long time since i posted here isn't it! I do apologise for my absence - i hope my latest project will make up for it ;o)
So, a few weeks ago i saw this blanket and thought how pretty it was and how much i wanted to make one for myself. After some link following i found a tutorial on how to make the central granny strip and as i already know how to make a granny ripple i thought the rest would be easy!
Apparantly i like making things difficult for myself! But i am so glad i do as my finished blanket is something that i am really happy with and better still it's something that i made myself - mostly!

This was my first attempt at the central granny strip but i wasn't happy that it was "random", i mean, how was i going to decide what colour order the ripples would be in?!

granny squares ready to join

So, as the main purpose of the project was to use up the orange and pink stash left over from the giant granny square blanket i decided that i'd make strips of each colour i had and then join them.
this series of photos represent the construction of a granny ripple strip.

joined!

let the rippling commence!

almost there

that'll do it!

So, i had one strip made, now to work on the other colours... 

The Final Cowl - down?!

Dun dun dun deeeeeerrrrrrr... dun dun dundunderrrrrrrrrr.....

It worked in my head! :D

So, as a reward for finishing all of the cowls in the Great Cowl challenge and submitting them all on time we were rewarded with an extra pattern! I present the Like Honey Cowl :D

It's a gorgeous design with smocking and cables and knitted with Nimu Sella it is just warm, soft and luxxurious *love*

Some Socks for a change!

I have kind of gone off sock knitting, i don't know why but as part of my monthly challenges i decided to get my Kiila socks finished. Well, seeing as i started them in 2009 i figured it was about time!

Kiila Socks

It's a great pattern, the gusset increases are just lovely the way they are enclosed in the twisted stitches and cables and the twisted stitch ribbing really grips your foot. The yarn is soft and squishy, possibly not the best choice for socks but definitely warm!

Crow Waltz

I have had my eye on this pattern for some time and after buying some beautiful yarn from Nimu i decided to get stuck in. The edging is knitted first and then the body of the shawl is picked up from the edge and knitted upwards to the shoulders using a slip stitch pattern that creates a lovely dense warm fabric.

Crow Waltz

Moda Bake Shop: Lawn Chair Quilts

Moda Bake Shop: Lawn Chair Quilts
Would really like to make this quilt, i am going to have to make it from FQs though and buy myself some plain solid metreage for the contrast, will have a sort through and pick out some complimentary colours and also will have to work out how many FQs i will need!

Lavender Scowl

This is the final installment in the Great Cowl KAL - Blueberry Scowl but as i am using some lovely handspun in silver grey and lavender i have renamed it!
It's really heavy and warm and LONG!

Not the right buttons

I found the perfect buttons in Allders, really pretty Mother of Pearl ones :)

Very Good Mitts Indeed!

I whipped these up out of the leftovers from the Very Good Cowl Indeed using the Alberte's Mitts pattern, i ran out of wool on the thumbs but luckily i had a very similar skein which just had more purple in it!

Posh Mitts

Perfect fit!

The wool is Posh Yarns Lucia in "Scuffle", it makes a lovely soft and warm fabric :)

Orange Hat and Cowl number FourOrange

I have been meaning to knit an orange hat to go with my gorgeous Forest Canopy Shawl that Joy made me in 2008 and i finally got round to it!
I used the Interlude Hat pattern with no mods and used the yummy Colinette DK that i bought on our Welsh holiday in 2009 for this very purpose! I like it when a plan comes together! :D

Orange hat and Cowl Four

The cowl is installment Four in the Great Cowl Challenge over at Feministy's Ravelry group. This one's called Perpertually Persistant and is made with Rowan Big Wool and 10mm needles! It's really thick and squishy and so warm! I'm managing to keep to the schedule and am getting my cowls submitted on time which is great and i am really enjoying the challenge too :)

Great Cowl Challenge - Pt3

Here is the third installment of the Great Cowl Challenge KAL - it's called Weeble Wobble Cowl and is made with my precious skein of Violet Green sock yarn in a beautiful purpleypinkyblue colourway.

Although the rounds were very long i really enjoyed making it and the short row sections added great interest :)

unfortunately it is impossible to photograph well!

Patchwork notebook cover

This tutorial popped up on my Facebook page the other day and reminded me that i have wanted to make one for ages so today i had a free afternoon for the first time this week and decided to spend it in the kitchen sewing  my new squared paper notebook it's very own cover :D

i started by choosing my fabrics

and ended up with this!

Inside

Pen holder and elastic closure

Button closure with felt and embroidery!

With hindsight i should have used a plain fabric to line it as it is not visible at all but other than that i am very happy with it and my new notebook will be nice and easy to spot on the bookshelf now too!

The fabric is from Ikea, i bought it years ago but have always loved it too much to use it. Now i get to see it all the time! :oD

Now it's time to crack on with the Great Cowl KAL, i have the last short row section to do and then a couple of rows of edging and i can cast off all 368 stitches which i have a feeling might take a while!!

A Very Good Cowl Indeed!

I think it is a Very Good Cowl Indeed!

This is the second of the Great Cowl KAL patterns and the deadline is 8pm CST today so i was very happy to finish with 12 hours to spare :oD

I've used more stash yarn as that is also part of my personal challenge, this is Posh Lucia in "Scuffle" and it is SO warm and squishy! I love it!

The next pattern should be out tomorrow so i'll have to go and rummage out some super chunky. I have two different shades of pink Rowan Big Wool that will look nice together and i like the idea of a half and half cowl that i can wear either way round depending how pink i am feeling :oD

Of course, i could always save it as a Christmas or birthday for someone... Maybe! lol

The Great February Cowl Challenge

I don't know how i found out about it but i stumbled across a Cowl knitting challenge being organised by Liz Abinante, the very clever lady who designed the Travelling Woman shawl that i knit for Lisa and appear to have not blogged about!!
She's designed 5 cowls for us to make, the challenge is to finish it by each set deadline. If we do that then we get the next pattern for free and as this year is all about challenging myself i decided to give it a go :)

I cast the first cowl on on Saturday morning with a feeling of panic. I only had until 8pm CST (2am GMT) on Wednesday to finish it so i got stuck right in and knit on it all afternoon at Knit Group, i managed to knit the 3" of stocking stitch and the first two rows of the pattern and then it got put aside in favour of a stonking hangover on Sunday!!

Finished Flurries

Monday is usually our sewing day but as my machine is in for a service i indulged myself and knit on the cowl all day and i'd finished it by the evening, including sewing the buttons on and tidying away the ends :)

I had about 26g of yarn leftover and spent the evening wondering if i would have enough for a pair of matching mitts and after trawling Ravelry for some inspiration i just decided to make two mini-cowls :oD
There are more details on the Ravelry project pages of the yarn used,  my mods etc - Cowl & Mitts

Matching Mitts

I am rather pleased with how they came out and they are SO warm, i really do love the brioche stitch, it makes a warm, dense and squishy fabric which is perfect for our current cold weather!

The set!

So, the next pattern is due to be released any time now, i have my sock yarn and needles ready to cast on, and plenty of free time to knit i just hope i finish The Orange Hat first!

Feb Challenge - finished top

I'm not doing too badly on my challenge, i settled on a layout last night and joined all the blocks today and here's the finished top!

All it needs now is layering, quilting and binding :D

Hopefully i will have a sewing machine again soon so that i can get on with it!

I absolutely adore the colours in this range, i'm so pleased i bought the "Moda Scrap Bag" and didn't put it off "cos i've got enough" lol

It was a joy to work with and i love what i did with it, it's based on a quilt in a book but i didn't set it on point and it was my first sewn log cabin blocks too which i really enjoyed doing.

A February Challenge

The challenges continue! Following Januray's success i have set myself a tougher target this month.
I want to make a whole quilt from scratch for my m-i-l's birthday at the beginning of March :oD
It's definitely not impossible given that i pieced 36 blocks yesterday afternoon :D

2½" pieces joined (on the right)

Halfway...

All the prints done...

First border added...

All done!

I played with them last night and settled on a layout so that's this morning's job.
The sewing machine needs to go in for a service as it's really been complaining lately so i'd like to get the blocks joined just in case i don't have it back for 3 weeks!! :o(

January Challenge

this year i have decided to challenge myself in a Crafty sort of way so each month i am going to set myself a target and work towards achieving it.

January's challenge was to complete The Porange Quilt and the Badger Blankie and i am happy to say i achieved both goals!

Lukey is only laying on it to show the size of it, he is totally banned from it now, it's MINE and i don't want it smelling of dog lol

I don't have any photos of the quilt yet, i keep forgetting to take them... you can see it before it was finished though, i'll let you ;o)

The finished top before borders were added

Arty shot... borders added, backed, quilted and binding done :)