New Project Excuses

a little note from Future Charlotte: This post was written on my "rebound blog", when I thought I could be all fancy and have a proper website. Long story short - running a website is expensive & time consuming, and I just couldn't do it. After a little bit of grovelling, my blogger allowed me to come back - phew! So, just as a warning, this post might reference & link to said rebound blog, and you can click here to be check it out if you so desire. Now I'm going to hand back to past Charlotte...


I've been spending a lot of time lately creating content for the website (I'm blogging daily, as well as releasing podcasts & YouTube videos), so I've been spending very little time knitting. This week I'm trying to get myself more organised so that I get more knitting done!

So, this week I actually have a couple of projects to share with you! First up we have a Mitered Blanket.

As I said in last weeks podcast, I saw the wonderful Tami post a picture of her mitered blanket on Instagram. Now, this doesn't happen very often, but the moment I saw it I wanted to make one myself. I quickly logged into Ravelry, had a dig around, and managed to find myself a pattern called Knitted Patchwork Blanket by Martine Ellis. This pattern uses leftover sock yarn to create cute little diagonal squares!

Ok, so you might be think, "but Charly, you already have your Beekeeper's Quilt waiting to be finished," and you'd be right... but...(quick pause while I think of an excuse for casting on another project) ...but...I don't have any stuffing for my hexipuffs! So, I can't kit anymore until I get more stuffing (lame excuse, but hey, it works in my mind!)

So, back to the blanket, I am making it for my lovely dog, Lilo, as she loves to cuddle up in a blanket and she doesn't have one of her own yet (shocking! bad knitter). As I said, I am using sock yarns from my stash to knit it, and I am really liking how it is turning out!

I am using 2.75mm bamboo needles (which I bought in a 11 piece set for £3 - bargain!), so each square measures about 2x2 inches. This project is going to last a little while, which is great because I'm really enjoying working on it. It is great for when I'm not feeling well enough to follow a pattern!

The project I have been working on ferociously this week is my Leaf on the Wind socks (which I briefly mentioned yesterday). These are for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous May 2014 KAL, and the category I chose to knit was Flora & Fauna. I instantly fell in love with this pattern by Purrlescent, and casted it on straight away. It is a toe-up pattern, which I must admit frightened me a little bit, but it turns out knitting toe-up is really simple.

I love the leaf lace pattern that grows up the foot and eventually swirls around the leg. Knitting these has proved to be a great aid in taking my mind off of my pain, so I will definitely be knitting more lace socks in the future.

This morning I finished sock 1, and after I've published this post I'll get stuck into casting on the second one. I don't want to develop Second Sock Syndrome with these beauties.

I am using Stylecraft Life 4ply in Aqua, which is a wonderful budge yarn I have plenty of in my stash! I am knitting these for my Mum, and she doesn't know it yet, but she has been helping me with the colour choice and fit the entire time! So hopefully they will be a perfect fit for her. I won't show you what the finished sock looks like yet, you'll have to wait until I've finished the pair... (oh, the suspense), but this is what it looked like halfway up the leg!

So, that is it from me this week! If you want some more WIP Wednesday fun, why don't you check out these other posts by wonderful knitters and crocheters around the world!

Until tomorrow, then, my lovelies. Have a great day! x

Gloves for Genevieve

I really hate the fact that my blog has been so neglected over the past few months. I'm not going to promise any over night miracles, where I blog every single day, and I finish projects every week etc etc... all I'll promise is that I'll try to get it all back on track. My depression has been getting worse since June, and now it is very bad indeed, so I've lost interest in absolutely everything. Knitting? meh.... Blogging? certainly not. Spending time with my friends? hmm if I have to.

And I hate that I feel that way. Just this spring I was so excited about casting on new projects, finishing and gifting projects, and writing all my escapades down on this blog so you could share my joy and excitement. I want that feeling back, so I thought if I sink my teeth into blogging again, perhaps the constant writing about knitting will get me excited about the craft again.

So, today I am going to tell you all about a pair of lacy mittens. Ooooooooh!

My friend, Gene (Genevieve - such a beautiful name!), has been such a lovely friend to me over the past year. So, to say thank you, I am making her a little parcel of goodies. In that parcel is going to be a pair of mittens, as not only is the cold weather on its way, but she also suffers with quite severe arthritis so keeping her hands warm is very important!

I found a pattern called Della Mitts by Holly Terrell, which is a really cute mitten with a variety of stitches. If I tell you the honest truth, I was originally making these for my friend Sarah, for the Hand Warming Swap I am hosting over on the Ravelry group Wish Upon a Star, but I then decided perhaps they weren't for her, and continued them for my friend Gene.

I'm using two yarns: Life 4ply by Stylecraft in Melon, and Sirdar Town & Country 4ply Sock Yarn. The former is leftovers from the Delicate socks and Horseshoe Lace Cowl projects I made last year, and the latter yarn is a very small skein that my Nan gifted me from her stash. I thought these two yarns complemented each other well, and gave this pattern a bit of a 'twist'.

The pattern is very simple, and the only modifications I've made is that I accidentally did two garter ridges rather than three, when separating the lace cuff and the lace hand, and that I used two colours rather than one. Other than that, I have been following the instructions to the letter. I'm now onto the body of the second mitten, and I'm hoping that I'll have them finished by the weekend! :D

 Until tomorrow, dear friends. Until then, why don't you check out some wonderful posts by the rest of the WIP Wednesday gang? I promise you won't regret it!!

Granny Square Eyes

Past few days I've been very ill indeed, but I'm slowly on the mend. I've managed to come off two of the 4 mega painkillers, so I'm just dealing with two now. I'm still on a puree/very soft food diet, but I hope to be able to eat some normal food tomorrow. I have been far too sick to knit, unfortunately. So, I've been sat watching Lost! I don't sleep much, so I'm already on Season 3 ep 3, and you could say I am a little  addicted. I love all the characters (except Ana Lucia, she was a pain!), but my favourite has to be Jack. I found myself sobbing at 6am this morning as I watched Jack go through his divorce. Now, whether it was because I was emotionally unstable from being weaned off a load of medication, or it is because Matthew Fox is an awesome actor, I'm not sure. Probably both. But what it does mean is, I really need to start crafting again.

So today, I did a couple of rows of the Seven Seas Blanket. I'm now onto a new colour, and what I've realised is this baby isn't going to be wide enough. I should have done two balls of each colour for the stripes instead of the one, I never realised it was going to be this wide! So, I'm thinking of adding more colours, but I'll have to talk to Mum again and see what she thinks.

The yarn is King Cole Big Value DK in Pot Pourri (296), which Deramores no longers stocks unfortunately. It has a slight wooly feel to it despite being 100% acrylic, and knits up nicely. 

And now it is time for a first on An Accidental Knitter - A crochet project appearing on WIP Wednesday! *trumpet fanfare, squeals and giggles of happy children sound all around* Hurraaaaaaaay :D

I would love to master the basics of crochet so I can move onto a 'proper' project, so I thought the best way to begin to learn, is by making a granny square blanket. I love granny squares. I love how they look, I love creating them, and I also love how quick they are to make! (I think my high score so far is crocheting one in 15 minutes). So today, after a few episodes of Lost, I had a dig through my stash box and bagged up most of my DK scraps (I have a few more looming near the bottom, but by the time I got there, the temptation to start making something was just too strong). 

Most of yarn in the scrap bag are remains from previous projects, some are skeins of yarn I hate (but I can never sell/throw yarn away, I have to make something with it), and the rest are tiny skeins of acrylic crap I got in magazines. I really want to use it all up, so I have more room in my stash, so I thought I would use these scraps for my crochet blanket endeavor.

I made 5 of these granny squares today, which brings my square count up to: 7. I'm going to try and make one or two a day, and see how that goes. I've noticed that it is a brilliant way to test out colour combinations! I'd like to make no two squares the same, but I can't see that happening somehow.

My Mum has said she'd happily sew them together for me in the evenings while she watches telly, and as you know I am rotten at sewing up so I quickly jumped at her offer.

So that is all from me, before I send you packing to Tami's, just a little reminder that I have a giveaway going on my blog, so you should go check that out!

Hope you all have a lovely evening x

Jungle Cocoon

I am very fortunate to have gorgeous nieces, young cousins, and lots of friends with kids, as it means I have an excuse to knit up lots of baby, toddler, and child patterns.

My favourite age to knit for?

Newborn.

Everything is so tiny, and absolutely adorable. They are quick knits, and when you're finished you sit there in amazement and wonder how on earth you were ever that small. The newborn knit I am most pleased with is the little 'Hello, Sailor!' dress I made last November. It is currently sat in my gift basket (which I will blog about soon!) waiting for a loving home. I can't wait to see it being worn!

I tend to stalk the Ravelry Pattern library for new baby patterns, as they are so quick, cute and use up those odd bits of yarn in my stash. Lately, I kept coming across Cacoons, which are a little sleeping bag! There are some gorgeous patterns on Ravelry, such as the Mermaid Cocoon (I need to get better at crochet so I can make this!). I wanted to see how the construction worked, as I had a couple of ideas for my own design, so I thought I would pick a simple pattern so I could see how it was constructed etc. I chose Old Pink Cocoon by Barbara Ajroldi, after a look through my stash I could only find pastel colours, and to be honest I'm bored of using traditional colours for these kind of projects, I want to keep my knitting looking modern and funky. So, with that in mind, I chose four different yarns. Premier Value Double Knit in Meadow, King Cole Big Value DK in Kingfisher, V&A Products Ltd Craft Cotton in Ecru and an unknown brown DK with golden yellow speckles.

I was originally using these colours as a part of the Temperature Scarf I was attempting, but I ended up missing so many days in a row I decided to stop knitting it. Rather than frog it though, I used it as a swatch for the cocoon, to give me an idea on how I should stripe the yarns.

The top of the sack is lace, unfortunately the King Cole Big Value DK doesn't have great stitch definition so the lace is difficult to see, even when you have it squished up against your face. The lace was quickly followed by a few centimeters of stocking stitch, and now I am onto the eyelet section of the sack, which means I am getting close to finishing! 

The eyelet section is done by k2tog all across the row, then on the WS,  you P1, pick up the yarn in between the next stitch, purl it, and repeat the process. This particular WS seems to take the longest, but I like the end result. 

For the final section of the sack, I'll knit it in the brown speckled yarn like I did for my swatch. I'm pretty pleased on how well the yarns go together, I think I am slowly getting better at choosing colour combinations without the need of help from the internet or my arty Mum!

So, I hope to have this casted off & sewn up by the weekend. I do have a particular person I am going to save it for, so until this certain person gets preggers, this will be going into the gift basket!

Enjoy your evening folks!

I'm Such a Rebel

Last week I promised I would be a good girl and finish Daisy's raglan before I started Tilly's cabled cardigan.

I lied.

I tried so hard to resist the temptation. Honestly. When I was nearly at breaking point I ran to instagram for support, which worked, until I started getting these comments:

This of course, made me want to knit the new cardigan even more... I had had an awful night, nightmare after terrifying nightmare, once cooled down and I had stopped shaking I decided to do some knitting to take my mind of the horrors.

And what did I knit?

I casted on Tilly's cardigan of course!!

This is my second project from my personal challenge A Year of the Cardigan, I wanted to attempted seaming again as it's a skill I would really like to improve.

The pattern I have chosen for Tilly is Hallows Cardigan by Melissa Metzbower, a rather masculine pattern, but I thought if I used a cute shade of pink I would be able to get away with it ;) One reason I chose to knit this particular pattern, was that it used Worsted/Aran weight yarn. I love, love, love working with those weights. I tend to stick to DK, so it is nice to have a change every now and again :)

Of course, you need to know what yarn I've chosen. I'm using Stylecraft Special Aran, in their Fondant colourway. You all know how much I love using Stylecraft yarn, it is cheap and great quality. Personally I enjoy using it more than some of the expensive yarns I've tried ;)

This has been a really good knit to have on the needles, I have been in so much pain lately with my Fibromyalgia that I need something simple to knit, yet it still needs to have enough complexity to keep me interested. That is where the cables came in.

As you can see from the photo, I decided to mirror the cables on the right front, just because I think it looks a lot prettier that way :)

Other mods I made, was that I downsized to 4.5mm needles, so that I got the right gauge. Other than that, I followed the pattern to the letter :)

I've switched back to Daisy's raglan for a little bit, to see if I can finally finish than dang lace panel! I am also working on a few new patterns, I hope to have them finished soon but we shall have to wait and see how things go!

A quick side note, you may have noticed a few changes to the blog lately. I've added a few new pages such as:

The Year of the Cardigan - the update page for all the projects for this personal challenge

The Flying Needles Knitting Club - I have my own knitting club!! Come and check it out, we have a Ravelry group where we talk every day, and we also do a webchat a couple of times a month.

Learn to Knit with An Accidental Knitter - Here you will find all my photo and video knitting tutorials

I've also updated my about page which is now entitled Whose Writing?

Head on over to this lovely lady for more WIPW posts!

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

Pattern Doodling

Yesterday I said I was going to show you a swatch for a new scarf pattern I'm dreaming up, using Patons Morocco Aran in Jade/Smargd.

Well, I did have a go with the Morocco yarn but I just couldn't think up a pattern that worked well enough with it. So, getting bored I grabbed my skein of Stylecraft Special Double Knit in Raspberry, settled down in front of Larkrise to Candleford (series three, if you were wondering) and knitted away.

I tried to think about this new design as little as possible, and to just see where I went with it. Two episodes later, this is what I was left with:

I call them 'Doodle Mitts' :) 

As you can see, at the start of each cable there is a decoration of YO's, following the bend in the beginning of the cable.

They are knitted flat, then sewn up. The cable is really simple, making it perfect for a cable novice. In fact, I think this pattern would be great for beginners!

I'm going to knit up the second mitt, and then I'll release the pattern some time next week. Late last night I designed a second pair of mittens, I'll give you two clues. It is fair isle, and they are inspired by where I live...

I'm Hooked!

One of my goals this year was to learn to crochet. I've attempted to teach myself several times but I could never get the hang of it. I remember mentioning to my friend, Rae, how difficult I was finding it and she told me that she'd teach me! She told me that she wouldn't tell me which stitches I was learning until after I'd got the hang of it. I thought that was a very clever way of getting me to learn, as I'm constantly getting confused between 'treble', 'half treble' etc etc.

So on Monday night, when I was in way too much pain to sleep and I didn't feel like knitting, I decided to give crochet another go. I kept Rae's idea in mind and headed onto YouTube to find a Granny Square tutorial, as granny squares (and ripple blankets actually) were the reason I wanted to learn to crochet.

I found a series of great tutorials by Bethintx1 (click here for lesson one), she did it really slowly at first to get you started, then as the lessons go along and you get the hang of it she quickens her pace. I was doing really well, until I got to lesson three and I got extremely confused and I couldn't find where in the video I had got stuck. Now having a general idea on what to do, I tried to find a photo/written tutorial on Ravelry and came across 'Granny Square Tutorial Over Simplified'. It's brilliant, as each step is photographed so you can see how it is meant to look.

After about 15 minutes I had my first granny square....

No idea what the yarn is... It was a gift, but had no ball band!
All I do know is that it's DK weight.

It turned out big because of my loose tension. I had no idea if it looked like a granny square or not, so I asked the very lovely people on Instagram and apparently it is a granny square. So, hooray!

I then made another in 'Plum' Special DK by Stylecraft. This one turned out smaller than my first.

By now it was about 4:30am and my body was screaming at me to get to sleep. After I finished crocheting, I started to notice the pain but by then it had softened enough for me to get some sleep. I drifted off thinking, chain one, 3 double crochet in chain 1 space, chain 1, 3 double crochet in corner, chain 2, 3 double crochet in corner - one corner made! 

I woke up in a pain haze, completely forgetting about my crochet escapades. When I saw the granny squares piled up by my bed, for a split second I thought perhaps someone else had left them there. When I did finally remember that I had made them, I was over joyed and immediately grabbed my hook and started making more, just to prove that it wasn't a fluke.

Turns out it wasn't, I can make granny squares!

These ones didn't turn out great...

@blrb on instagram (who is always lovely about my crafting) said that changing the colours would help define the pattern, so I thought I would give it a go.

I found some bright yarn in my stash that I got free from a magazine, it's really crappy stuff but the colours are great, and had a go at another couple of granny squares.

I can't get the yarn to photograph properly, it is really bright in real life!

And because I am now completely obsessed, I crocheted a square while writing this post, this time in rainbow yarn!

I'm getting my room decorated soon, and it is a seaside theme. White, red and blue are the colours being used for my new duvet & curtains, so I thought I would crochet myself a matching Granny Square Blanket (since I have always wanted one). When I get some money, I'm going to get myself a few skeins of Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK in... Classic Red (for the first round), White (for the second round) and Azur (for the final round. I can't wait to give it a go!!

Origami Falls Cowl

Yesterday I spoke about the Horseshoe Cowl I was casting on in favour of the Slouchy Bubbles Beanie. Well, its finished! So I shall share it with you on Friday. As per usual, I can't knit just one of a certain type of object (i.e beanie, cowl) I have to knit a whole load of them in a short period of time. Last night I cast on another cowl, which you could brand as cheating, as this pattern is apart of my Year of Projects list I was going to blog about on Thursday.

The pattern is Origami Falls Cowl by Teleri. I thought this pattern was absolutely gorgeous, and couldn't get my head round why it only had a project count of 35. I decided to use Finullgarn by Rauma in what I call, "Essex Tan" (bright orange for those outside of the UK). Finullgarn is a 100% wool, fingering weight yarn from Norway. My very lovely friend Myriah sent it to me when we were paired together in a swap, this time last year. I've been umming & arring over what to knit with this yarn for months (12 of them in fact!), so I'm pleased I finally found the perfect pattern.

I cast on using a set of 4 DPNs rather than the circulars, or 5 set the pattern calls for, meaning I have a total of 40sts on each needle. The cowl has no purl at either the top or bottom to stop it from curling (which got pretty annoying when I was trying to photograph it), so I am going to have to sew the hem to the first row of knit stitches on either end of the cowl to get it to sit straight.

I have always struggled following charts, I either read the pattern the wrong way (your meant to read right to left on RS, left to right on WS) or get confused with the different symbols. So for the past few lace projects I've 'translated' my charts into written patterns, as I find it much easier to follow.

I've been finding this pattern knits up very slowly, I casted on yesterday afternoon, and despite there being a stitch of only 120, I've done a measly 31 rows (3,720 sts to be exact). I hope to get my fingers flying and get to at least halfway through the second repeat by this evening. The fact I'm knitting so slow could be due to the fact I'm working on thin needles and thin yarn, but I'm not really sure.

Now that the pattern is beginning to form, I find I don't love it as much as the pattern picture. I got talking to Megan, from A String of Purls, via instagram. She told me that she cast on this same pattern a few months ago and like me, found the pattern didn't have enough depth to it as the picture makes out. But, that is just our opinions. What do you think?

When I took a closer shot, the camera, rather annoyingly,
dulled the yarn colour. 

I'm off to re-watch last nights episode of The Paradise, a new British Period Drama which I'm a little addicted to.

Click the picture below to be taken to Tami's, where she is showing us pictures of the Vista Fibre Fiesta she attended over the weekend, plus all the goodies she snagged while she was there!

A Lazy Blogger

So today I thought I would have a go at doing my first vlog post. If you aren't able to watch videos, you can head on over to my Ravelry Project page to see what I have been working on this week. Once you've finished, head on over to Tami's for more WIP Wednesday fun! :)