Delicate

Well good morning, my lovelies! :) I have a new project to share with you, and it includes lace, melon pink, and perhaps even some sock yarn...

Earlier in the year I bought myself a skein Stylecraft Life 4 ply in Melon, from Deramores. I bought it in the hope to knit myself some socks, but not just any kind of socks, I was planning on making lace socks.

The chosen pattern was Herringbone Lace Socks by Ann Budd, from her (rather awesome) book, "Get Started Knitting Socks". This was my first time knitting a sock with a pattern (I've only ever knitted plain stockinette socks before now), so I was a little apprehensive on whether I'd be able to do it, but it turns out it is dead simple!!

The pattern calls for Sport yarn, and 3.75mm needles, so I changed this around a bit. The yarn I had chosen was Fingering weight, and so I decided to use 3mm needles. This, of course, made things smaller than they were meant to be, so rather than following the instructions for the Adult Small (which I am) I followed the Adult Medium instructions, and everything seemed to fit rather perfectly. I followed the instructions for Adult Medium until I reached the foot, then I just carried on knitting until I had 2 inches less than the length of my foot, then I began decreasing for the toe. This gave me the perfect foot length! (I've never had socks fit so perfectly before!)

My youngest sister, who I now help care for, has done rather well the past week, hardly any seizures and not too much fainting, which meant that I could just sit & knit while I kept an eye on her. So, within a day and half I had a sock, and by the next evening I had a whole pair!

I've kept the writing in this post rather short so that I could bombard you with pictures, so are you ready? Here goes!!

Yarn looks more orange than it really is, think 'melon pink'.

I'm really chuffed with them! I was expecting the top to curl, but it only slightly did, I was also preparing for the fact that they wouldn't stay up (since there is no rib in the cuff), but thanks to the yarns elasticity, the socks stay up.

Want to know what is even better? Ann Budd, author of this pattern, the book it is from, plus countless other publications, commented on them! And look, look what she said...

Click on the picture for it to be enlarged...

I grinned like the Cheshire Cat when I saw that! :D 

So, that is one more Year of Projects project ticked off, hooray! I do have another that is finished, but I don't want to show you until it is blocked, so you can see it in its full glory. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm off to design a pair of socks...

#cute

Knitting is immediately linked to socks, crazy jumpers and comfy cardigans. I can knit socks, (not very well, but I can do it), I have no intention of knitting crazy jumpers, and I suck and cardigan knitting.

I made my youngest niece, Daisy, the Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands by Debbie Bliss earlier on in the year. I found it a little challenging, as I'm awful at picking up stitches. I managed to fumble my way through it though, and it didn't turn out too bad! But, I swore never to do it again. I decided I was more suited to knitting mittens and hats. 

My very lovely friend Jaz then knitted the Seamless Yoke Baby Sweater by Carole Barenys, which is a top-down raglan baby cardigan. I loved the idea of knitting it all in one, without the need of picking up stitches (you need to pick up a couple of stitches for the underarms, but that's it!), and was determined to give it a go. 

After a lot of 'no, I'm far too dumb to be able to knit it... I'll give it a go in a couple of weeks', I finally casted on. And it turns out, I'm not as thick as I thought! I used the pattern Baby's Raglan Sweater No Seams by Carole Barenys (and yes, I agree that a more creative name could have been used :P), a very simple pattern, perfect if you've never knitted top-down before!

When you knit a top-down raglan, you begin working flat. Once you've finished increasing you separate the sleeves from the body. The pattern didn't explain how to do that, but I found this brilliant tutorial on YouTube by Roxanne Richardson. Once you've moved the sleeves onto waste yarn and cast on the underarm stitches, you just knit flat! 

For some reason that I can't quite recall, I decided to make the cardigan shorter than the pattern requires. A decision I regretted later on. 

Once you've casted off the body, you move onto the sleeves. You knit the sleeves using DPNs, simply diving the stitches between the three needles, then picking up extra stitches for the underarm. 

Once I was finished, I felt the cardigan was a little too plain, and was in need for some decoration! I wanted this to be a very 'different' baby knit, so I decided to do the two things I never see on baby clothes. Pockets, and hashtags.

The pocket was really simple to do, I just picked up a number of stitches, knitted, the sewed the sides down. Then, using duplicate stitch, I put a little heart onto the front of the pocket. 

Hashtags are a big thing these days. You see them all over the internet, and now people even use phrases such as '#awkward' in their daily speech. I have never seen it on clothes, though, so I thought I would give it a go. Using duplicate stitch, I wrote #cute on the bottom of the left front panel. I have to admit, I think it makes the once rather boring cardigan, a modern must have! 

Techincally the cardigan isn't finished, as I have ends to weave in and buttons to sew on, but I have lost my wool needles, so for now this is as finished as it is going to get!

This was going to be given to my youngest niece, Daisy, but I think it is going to be too short :( So, for now its home will be the gift basket! :)

When I Grow Up, I'm Going to Be a Yarn Dyer

There are many things I wish for in my personal life, but when it comes to knitting there is one thing I wish for. Learning to dye yarn.

I was introduced to hand dyed yarn last year by Tami, when she was in the process of opening her (awesome) shop, Candy Skein. Not having to be at the mercy of (ordinary) yarn shops was a revelation to me. I could actually decided what colour(s) I wanted, and whether they would stripe, variegate, ombré, or be in a single block of colour. Plus I could decided the yarn weight and how many skeins I would dye.

A few months later, my Mum found me a yarn dyeing course at a yarn shop close by. The owner was very kind and suggested I do my course in a series of installments over a few days, rather than an all day course (this is due to all my health problems).

Almost a year later, I'm sad to say, I'm still waiting to attend the course. My health has improved recently so much so that I could probably do the course in one day! But with my living situation how it is at the moment it would be impossible for me to go.

My Mistofellees - Merino/Nylon Sock-Superwash in
"Summer Berries", from Black Cat Fibres, which I
reviewed earlier in the year.

This setback hasn't stopped me planning what I'm going to dye, though. My dream is to have my own hand-dyed yarn shop, so I've been sat working on 'yarn series' that I'm quite pleased with. If I ever do have my own yarn shop, it wouldn't be as awesome as Tami's. I wouldn't be able to do a sock club, or custom orders. The reason being that my health can decline very quickly, so I might not be able to fulfill orders. Also, there are some things going on in my life that are not very nice, and could get worse at any time, if that did happen I wouldn't be able to fulfill custom orders or dye the next months sock club.

It'd be a simple, small shop.There wouldn't be one single theme, like Tami's "Candy Skein", mine would be more like Danielle's "A Stash Addict", or Ruth's "Black Cat Fibres", where I cover a whole range of "themes". I have no clue what I'd call my shop. I couldn't call it "An Accidental Knitter", as there is a yarn shop called "The Accidental Knitter". But, this dream is a long way off, so I don't need to worry about shop names quite yet :)

What is your big wish for 2013? :)

in reply to the Day 3 prompt, "What do you really wish for?" If you want to find out more about #reverb12, click this lovely linkie.

Impact

This year, quite a few of the new techniques I've learnt have made an impact. None so big though, as knitting in the round. I found knitting in the round really hard, heck, it took me almost half an hour to learn the Old-Norwegian Cast On. Then there was the problem of arranging the needles. "This one goes here - no wait. Now I've got it. No. Good grief, how do people even manage to make something with these darn things?!"

Cotton Candy Baby Hat 

I couldn't get the hang of it on my own. I tried 5 DPNs, 4 DPNs, circular needles. I even left it in the corner of a room hoping elves would come and do it for me. Nothing worked. But then, my Nan came to stay with us for a while, she showed me how, and it all made sense.

Once I learnt to tame these savage double pointed needles, I made my first pair of socks. I then went onto making berets, hats, and cowls. Heck, I'm even knitting a top-down cardigan now!

As for the project that has had the biggest expenditure of time, that has got to be the Seven Seas Blanket that I'm making for my Mum. Flippin' humongous thing. I was making really good progress on it, and then guess what. My needles broke. I don't know how, since I was being as gentle as I normally am. Anyway... it was taking me 2-3 days to do just one stripe, and before my needles broke I only managed to do 2 1/2 stripes. Only 5 more stripes left to go, so if I work on it solidly (that means no other projects... boohoo) I'll be finished in 12.5 days.

12 and a half days.

9 days of stocking stitch. Then 3 days of moss stitch.

Don't let anyone, ever, bully you into knitting a blanket (almost) as wide as your bed is long. You'll save them money, and you'll stay sane.

So, that was my rather short, crafty twist on Day 2 of the #reverb12 challenge, 'Your Most Significant Spend'. Pop on over tomorrow for another #reverb12 post :)

How I'm Starting December 2012

This month is all about keeping sane.

There are things going on in my life that is making my day-to-day living very difficult, both physically & emotionally. I'm a complete stress head at the moment, but I'm trying my very hardest to come across "calm".

I don't think its working.

© Sibrikov | Stock Free Images &
Dreamstime Stock Photos

This month, therefore, is all about learning to cope emotionally with my new situation. I'm having my room decorated at the moment, which I think will help a lot. I'll have somewhere peaceful to escape too, and somewhere I can sit and chill out during those lonely hours of the night.

Knitting, I'm afraid to say, isn't helping. I feel awful to say that, since this was the very reason I learnt to knit. I think that it is because it doesn't need all of my attention. It allows my brain to wander, and to dwell on things. At the moment I really need something that focuses my whole attention. Reading, for example, is something I need to get back in to, as it completely transports me to another world. The book, The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw was absolutely amazing. It is a quirky book and is completely different to what I'd normally read, but I completely fell in love with it. I laughed, I cried, and I forgot all my worries. In a way, I felt like the girl with glass feet. I'm fragile, yet I can never let anyone see me like that. I cover myself up, grit my teeth and pretend that everything is OK, when it clearly isn't.

Anyway, that is enough of symbolic chatter.

My older sister and her boyfriend are coming to visit for a couple of weeks this month, and I'm so excited. I can't wait to give her a squeezy hug, watch TV, have our nice long conversations, and just be able to hang out with my much cooler older sister (to any of my three sisters reading, I think you're all just as awesome. I promise. Unless you bake me cookies. Then maybe we'll discuss you going higher up on the list.).

During December I'm also hoping to get out more, so I can just escape for a couple of hours and have some fun!

© Tuulum | Stock Free Images &
 Dreamstime Stock Photos

This month, I believe  will be my most creative. I want to knit things. Sew things. Paint things. I'm even writing a song.

We want to finish decorating the while house this month, as we've lived here for 3 years now and are dying to getting it looking homely. So, this will mean painting walls and furniture, wallpapering wardrobes (sounds bonkers but it looks awesome. I'll be posting a tutorial soon), sewing bunting, and much, much more. I'm going to be a little busy bee.

And don't worry (although, I'm sure you weren't), I'll be sharing all of my crafty escapades with you! I'm hoping to get a few tutorials done for you as well :)

Well, this post certainly isn't what I normally write about, but I'm taking part in #reverb12, and today's prompt is: 'How are you starting?'. I'll be picking and choosing the prompts I take part in, and the rest of the month will be my normal fibre randomness. So, make sure you pop on over every day during this month for a new post!

Hello, Sailor!

I took a break from blanket knitting, and decided to have a go at some baby clothes. I've been wanting to attempt the Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater, but I've been too scared. I decided to be a coward and knit something brainlessly simple, and that pattern came in the form of the Super Simple Baby Tunic by Little Gunn.

I had some yarn leftover from the Royal Blue stripe of the Seven Seas Blanket, but I knew it wouldn't be enough for the pattern, so chose to do stripes using Stylecraft Special Double Knit in White.

With the Tunic you have a choice of knitting in the round, or knitting flat. As I only had straight needles with me at the time, I had to knit flat, although if you try this pattern I urge you to do it in the round!

For the striping, I copied luvabby's project. If you want to give it a go, I've included the instructions on my project page.

The project was really simple, and I enjoyed knitting it. As I didn't have much yarn, I knitted the 0-6 month size, I would have loved to do ages 1-2, for my niece Daisy, but unfortunately the pattern doesn't have those sizes. So, it looks like I will have to design one! :D My new book, 400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch Patterns by Potter Craft, has arrived, so over the weekend I shall be putting it to good use, coming up with a new tunic pattern.

Once it was all sown up, and the buttons had been attached, I thought that it was missing a little... something. So, sticking with my Sailor theme, I decided to duplicate stitch an anchor onto the front panel of the tunic. I used this chart for the anchor, and this tutorial for learning duplicate stitch (insanely simple once you get the hang of it).

After all this work, I ended up with a piece of knitting I'm pleased with!

This little tunic has nowhere to go at present, so I'm going to pop it into my gift box. If you'd like to check out more finished projects, head on over to Tami's! 

I know I've not blogged very much this month, things have been crazy at home, but during the month of December I'm going to be taking part in #reverb12. I managed to take part in Kat's last blog-a-long during October, so I'm hoping to be able to blog daily again during next month! So don't forget to come back tomorrow for the kickstart of this month of remembrance!

An Embarrassed Knitter

This afternoon I was inspired by Sarah's latest instagram photo to share with you my 'most worn knits'. Unfortunately, out of all the knits I've made for myself (a huge grand total of five!) I only ever wear one on a regular basis. Which is A Very Braidy Cowl, that I finished last month. The reason that I don't wear my other knits could be because my Origami Falls Cowl & Horseshoe Lace Cowl need blocking, the Age of Brass & Steam Kerchief isn't yet off the needles, and my Emanelle gloves need to be re-sown (very long story), but I think this goes a lot deeper than that.

I'm embarrassed. 

My first pair of socks have so much wrong with them!
I should have blocked them, grafted the toe
better, the list goes on!

I get very embarrassed when people praise my knitting, because it is never as good as they make it out to be. My knitting isn't "beautiful", "gorgeous", or "perfect". When I think of beautiful, perfect knitting I think of Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee, The Rainey Sisters, or Mimi Hill. My knitting is no way near as good as there's, and I doubt it ever will be. So, when people give such praise to my creations I stand there & squirm, saying: "oh, thank you, that's very kind", while the million things that are wrong with it flood into my head. 

This is also why I hesitate to give knitted gifts. I'm more than happy to knit them, it is the giving that I have problems with. Because I know that I am going to have to stand there and watch them tear open the wrapping paper, and slowly draw their gift out. I stand there, watching them turn their gift over and over in their hands, and I suddenly see everything that is wrong with it.

For example, I went to my eldest sister's house for tea one evening, and I brought with me a parcel of knitty goodies for her youngest daughter, Daisy (who was 6 months old at the time). As Sara lifted the cardigan out of the wrapping paper, I suddenly noticed how badly I'd picked up and knitted the collar, and seen the horror that was my sewing (the arms would have sent evil shivers down your spine). I just wanted to run across the room and snatch it out of Sara's hands and bury it away.

Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands - My first ever attempt
at a cardigan. 

My Mother has tried her hardest, bless her, to make me see that my knitting isn't as bad as I make it out to be. One day I was getting nervous about giving my best friend, Molly, the lace scarf & mittens I'd made for her. Mother said to me: "Look Charly, if I had knitted those for you, what would you have said?" I replied: "I'd have asked were you'd bought them, because you don't knit." It did make me think though, that I need to stop putting myself down all the time. If someone had taken the time to make me something from scratch, I wouldn't say the things I say about my own work. 

So I've come to the conclusion that unless I stop knitting, I'm going to have to get used to the idea of my work being praised. I shall have to stand there, red as a beetroot, and accept the fact that they think it is beautiful and perfect, even if it isn't in my eyes. 

Oh, look! Something Sparkly...

I'm sorry I've been away, life happened. I am back now though, and I have a new project to share with you!

I've had The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief in my Ravelry queue ever since I saw Tami's project way back in June '11. I've been dying to knit it, but could never find the perfect yarn for the project. On Friday, the perfect yarn finally came along.

Branching Out Scarf
Click picture to enlarge

It came in the form of King Cole - Galaxy, in the Venus colourway. I originally used it to knit the Branching Out scarf by Susan Lawrence. For several different reasons (which I won't go into), I ended up frogging it. So, I was left with two gorgeous skeins of sparkly yarn that I had idea what to do with. It wasn't until I spoke to Sarah (from Crafts from the Cwtch) about the next Shawl KAL that I got the idea to knit the long awaited Age of Brass & Steam Kerchief.

I enjoyed learning the Garter Tab technique, it looked scary at first but I used this brilliant photo tutorial and it all made sense! I also learnt how to make one left, and make one right. So, despite it being an incredibly simple pattern, I still managed to learn three new techniques.

I'm about 70% through now, but it's looking smaller than it should be so I'm going to add another three or four sections to make it larger. I'm really happy with how its looking, and it will be mine once I'm finished - hooray! I'm starting to get the hang of making things for myself (I now have a total of 5 knits, just for me!), and I'm starting to plan projects for me, for a change, so that is progress! :)

I have noticed since knitting this shawlette, that I'm getting a little sparkles obsessed...

Yarn, knitting (I also have to sparkly beanies I didn't show you), hair clips, make-up, nail polish, bangles. Sparkles everywhere!!

Click the picture to find more YOP posts for this week! :)

Zarah's Cotton Candy Swirl Set

Quite a late update from me today, but I've finally been able to steal away some time to show you all this weeks FOs!

So, this week is all about the baby knit. I've not only been knitting them, I've been thinking up new designs too, which I can't wait to work on. Due to me being very up and down with my M.E this week, I've been working on very simple knits. My first project was the Basic Baby Hat by Heather Tucker. Now, this pattern calls for DK yarn & 4mm needles, but as my friend has just had a baby girl I decided to use my leftovers of Yummy Worsted in Cotton Candy Swirl by (the awesome) Candy Skein. As I was using worsted I dropped to 3.75mm needles, although in retrospect perhaps I should have used  3.5mm DPNs.

The project was lovely and simple, and the pattern was perfect :) I knitted the newborn size, although I believe it is more towards the 6 month size. Enough chat though, here it is!

I love the starfish decrease!

I thought I'd give baby Zarah a pair of mittens as well, so I chose the pattern Fast Baby Mittens by Lucy H. Lee. I used some pink DK Rizzle found in the bottom of her drawer, I am hazarding a guess that it is Stylecraft Special DK in Fondant, but don't hold me to that. The mittens didn't knit up as fast as I'd like, but that might be due to the fact I was knitting at a snail's pace. When I did finish though, I added an i-cord to keep them both together.

Next time I knit this pattern (and I will I assure you) I will make a longer i-cord, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing! :)

I've set aside baby Jack's footie set the moment, as my Knit Pro Spectra Flair tips arrived today so I am finaaaaaaaaaally able to get some work on the Seven Seas Blanket. But I will be taking the hat with me when I go away next weekend (allll by myself - so excited!) so I should get it finished then! :)

For now though, head on over to Tami's to check out more FOs for this week! I hope you all have a lovely weekend x

WIP Wednesday, on a Thursday?!

I didn't get chance to blog yesterday due to things happening at home, so today I'm going to share with you my rather late WIP Wednesday post :)

I've been getting problem after problem with my Seven Seas Blanket. First, I felt as if I was going to drown in Moss Stitch. Second, my brand new circular needle snapped. And if that wasn't enough, I went and ordered the wrong cable for my interchangeable needles.

Last year my Nan very kindly gave me her Addi Click Lace interchangeable needle set, as she never used them now she had the Knit Pro Symfonie Wood interchangeable needle set. So when my cable needle broke, I decided to just buy a single cable for my interchangeable needle set, as then I could use them with any of my tips in the future. I didn't check which set I owned until after the cable arrived, which was a really stupid thing to do. I'd only gone and ordered a Knit Pro cable rather than an Addi one! I let out a long UUUUUGHBLAAAAAAH! and looked on the Meadow Yarn website to see if I could exchange the cable.

Turns out you can't buy a 150cm cable for Addi sets (on that particular website anyway, I didn't bother to check anywhere else). So, I decided to see how much the Knit Pro 4mm tips I needed for my cable, would cost. You can buy the Knit Pro Spectra Flair Acrylic tips (4mm)  for £2.50! The coolest part is they come in a funky colour - bright pink! (although in the picture they look purple) I made the decision to buy the Knit Pro tips, as I can slowly build up my own set over time.

As I've been put on bed rest I chose 2nd class delivery, so that I wouldn't have the temptation of working on the blanket. The tips should be here sometime tomorrow, and by then I should be well enough to get a decent amount of work done on the blanket.

Meanwhile I have been whipping up baby knits! You all know too well that I have mini-obsessions, and at the moment it is in the form of ickle baby knits. I've knitted a simple hat, a pair of fast mittens (complete with i-cord), and I am now working on a cabled hat!

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just have a desire to work with a particular colour. After I saw Susan's Sweet Dreams Shawl, I have been dieing to knit a black project. I didn't have enough black yarn to make an awesome shawl, or cardigan. I just had enough for a small project, so I decided to combine my current mini-obsession with my black desire, and make a black baby hat.

I chose to knit the hat from the Cabled Baby Hat & Mittens set by Paulina Chin, as it looked like a fun, quick project. I felt that an all-black hat would be too much, so I made the brim white, just to lighten it all up a bit.

Adding the stripe of white was a bit of a silly idea, as the colour change is really messy, but other than that I quite like how it is turning out! When the hat is finished I'll also make the matching mittens! I'm naming my project Footie Set, as the colours remind me of a football (soccer ball) :)

I should finish this today, so remember to come on by tomorrow for FO Friday, where I should have 3 FOs to share with you! :D

Oh, Bother

Yesterday I showed you the beginning of the Seven Seas Blanket, and last night I finally started to get into it. Typically, just as I get into something, it goes wrong. I was happily knitting away, supping my wine, when I noticed the stitches weren't moving. I looked closer and realised the cable had almost snapped, just hanging on by a small piece of plastic!

 

Not really knowing what to do (only ever broken 2 straight needles), I wrapped it in sellotape, hoping that it would hold up. It did, for a little while. The moment I put weight on it though, it snapped completely...

I posted a photograph on Instagram, and here are the comments...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was a little annoyed! I'll have to email the seller on eBay & ask for a refund, as they shouldn't be bust within a few hours of using them.

Mother is going to Launceston tomorrow so I rang up the yarn shop there to see if they have the needle I needed, unfortunately they didn't so it meant another look on the internet. I found what I wanted on Loops, but they were going to charger over £3 for delivery! Which is too expensive, so I was forced to look elsewhere. It then dawned on me that I had an Knit Pro interchangeable needle set my Nan gave me! Don't know why I didn't think of it before! 

So, I have ordered a 150cm cable from Meadow Yarn. Postage was a good price, and looking around the shop they seem to have a lot of lovely things! I've always wanted a skein of Zauberball in Coconuts, it has a big yardage and would make an awesome shawl, or a couple of pair of socks!

So, the cable will be here tomorrow (hopefully, I paid for 1st class, but it could be like my Deramores order and take a few days). Meanwhile, I think I'll work on the Cotton Candy Baby Hat for little Zarah, my friend's new baby :)

I'm using leftovers of my Yummy Worsted in Cotton Candy Swirl, by Candy Skein. It won't take me long to finish, so I might whip up a hat for my friend's daughter, Isabelle, using the same pattern as Daisy's hat.

Pop back tomorrow for WIP Wednesday, hopefully I'll be able to show you some progress on the Seven Seas Blanket :)

Setting Sail on my Seven Seas Blanket

Yesterday afternoon I opened the front door to find a squishy parcel on my wet doorstep. Seems that my Deramores order was misdelivered to one of my neighbours, and they kindly brought to its rightful home.

I've been so excited about starting this project, even though I know that it will slowly kill me. For those who haven't been following the blog the past few days, here is what I'm planning...

Mother asked for a double-sized Hit the Road Blanket, using colours from her award-winning painting that hangs in our living room.

Each stripe will be separated with a shade of Lilac, as that is the colour of the swimming costume by cousin is wearing in the painting.

The first stripe will be in Royal Blue (James C. Brett Top Value DK), then there will be a dark purple stripe (James C.Brett Top Value DK), after that there will be a stripe of Berry (Patons Wool Blend DK), followed by the Pot Pourri stripe (King Cole Big Value DK). We then move onto the blue shades, which will be: Turquoise (James C. Brett Top Value DK), followed by Ocean (King Cole Big Value DK), and finally we will have a stripe of Kingfisher (King Cole Big Value DK)! Basically, this is what it will look like...

Working from left to right! (starting with the Royal Blue, and ending on Kingfisher)

I had to buy a special 120cm 4mm circular needle from eBay. I could have done with the 150cm, but unfortunately the only 150 I could find was £14, and I wasn't paying that much for one needle. So, I shall have to squeeze all my stitches on the 120cm, it'll be tight but I'm sure I can do it :)

I was poised, and ready to go... I have my pattern, needle, yarn and a packet of wine gums ready in my knitting bag (which I want to decorate with pin buttons, as the fabric isn't one I particularly like).

I was knitting a basic baby hat before the yarn arrived, but I decided to put that to one side as I was dieing to cast this blanket on. Just before the start of the Strictly Come Dancing results, I casted on and started knitting. Casting on took a while as I kept obsessively counting the stitches, finally though I did start knitting.

I'm on row 12 row, making me exactly a 1/5 of the way through the first stripe. I've always been dreadfully slow at 1x1 rib & moss stitch, so each 358 st row is taking me about 20 minutes to knit. I can't wait until I can move onto the stocking stitch part of the blanket, unfortunately though, by my calculations that is 15 hours of knitting time away.

As you can see I'm struggling to keep
all the stitches on the needles!

If this blanket does kill me, and I'm sure it will, I hope you've all enjoyed reading the blog over these past 19 months. And you will all be happy in the knowledge that it was a slow, happy death, right up to the last.

Squishy, Squishy Cables

Can't believe Sunday has come by again! Well, this week I have two projects to show you, so lets get started :)

When I added my Swirling Gauntlets project onto my YOP list, I didn't think I'd ever get round (also translated: "be bothered") to finish them. Amazingly, though, I did finish them!!

Left Gauntlet

Swirling Gauntlets is a cabled fingerless gloves pattern by Susanna IC (zuzusus on Ravelry). Rizzle asked for a pair in Dark Blue, so I chose to knit them with James C. Brett Top Value DK in Royal Blue. I knitted the left gauntlet up very quickly, but things started to go badly wrong on the cable section of the right gauntlet, and that is how they came to be a hidden WIP.

Fast forward 9 months and here we are. A couple of days ago, when I had nothing to knit, I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and just get them finished! I had to completely frog the right gauntlet as there was no way I could work out where I had started to go wrong. After a lot of squash, wine gums and a few episodes of Larkrise to Candleford (I'm slowly working my way through the series, onto series 4 now!) the right gauntlet was finished.

Right Gauntlet

So, that's my fifth finished YOP project! I'm pretty pleased with that :)

Now, onto the best knit, A Very Braidy Cowl by Maryse Roudier. I fell in love with this cowl at the first glance. What was even better was that I had the perfect yarn for it - Lion Cashmere Blend by Lion Brand in Dusty Blue. Michelle was having a stash clearout (cannot understand how people do that!) and very kindly gave me four skeins of this delicious yarn. I used one skein for Mother's Irish Hiking Armwarmers, so that left me with three squishy skeins. 

I knitted this squishy cowl over the course of a day, and I can tell you it was such a fun knit. I decided not to do the provisional cast on, and then graft the two ends. Instead I decided to seam it, next time though I will give the grafting a try. 

All I can say is that this my favourite ever knit. Yes, I was proud of my first pair of socks, and I'm rather jealous of Abby's Blanket, but this Braidy Cowl beats them all. 

The cashmere makes it incredibly soft,and the merino makes it lovely and work, basically it's the perfect neck cuddler (cowl). 

And for a change, here I am modeling my knits rather than Rizzle! 

Yarn is darker than in this and the following photograph

So, that wraps up this weeks post. The yarn for Mother's Seven Seas blanket arrived this afternoon (think it got misdelivered to one of my neighbours at first), so come back tomorrow to see my yarn choices :)

Toodlepip! x

For more Year of Projects posts, either head on over to the Come Blog-a-Long group on Ravelry, or search 'YOP1213' on Google.