Scrap Happy

I love 4ply yarn. I'm very much a process knitter, always enjoying the making more than the finished object, and the yardage on thinner yarn means more knitting time for the cash; or bang for your buck if you prefer. I knit quite a few socks. And am hoping to knit more shawls. Which inevitably means lots of leftovers. Skeins are generally sold in 100g lots, and I only have little feet. So what to do with all those little balls of colourful loveliness? A couple of years back, I knitted my mitred square blanket, and got a few pfers on the case too! Well, now the scraps are piling up again........... I've been searching for mini skein projects again and have found the perfect thing. Not another blanket (I'm not mad!) but a scarf. It uses linen stitch to give the effect of a woven fabric. Lovely to look at but very slow going. I anticipate this will be a long term project. Ideal for commute knitting as no pattern is needed, but it's not as mindless as you might think. I've already made loads of mistakes, but luckily it's quite forgiving. What do you think?

Sex Bo-bomb*

OH loves the film Scott Pilgrim but I hated it. I thought it was full of completely unsympathetic wankery characters, he said I was missing the point. Anyway, he wanted a hat. And with the snow falling fast, I thought I'd better get my knit on. He's a conservative chap my fella, but I felt he should try something different to his usual beanies. I found an online pattern for the hat worn by the eponymous Pilgrim, and even though the droopy nightcap style would normally send my OH running screaming into Marks and Spencer, the character endorsement meant he was much more enthusiastic. A bit like Stanley with Scooby Doo underpants. Bless my men. Nothing much to report on the knit. Straightforward, garter stripes. I used Rowan Pure Wool which I enjoyed despite it's strange cotton-y hand, and teamed it with a random blue 4ply I'd been gifted, held double. I think he liked it. On it's first outing, he was cornered by two coy Japanese schoolgirls, who pointed at his head and giggled 'Scott Pilgrim!!'. Made his day. * Scott Pilgrim's 'band'. Yes, the quotation marks are deliberate.

Literary KAL

In addition to my official knitting 'queue' this year, I have also joined a KAL (knit a long). Hosted by the Knitting Goddess forum on Ravelry, this involves knitting one item per month to fit in with a literary theme. Each month has an author's name, and the FO (finished object) must have a link to that author. It can have a pertinent pattern name, yarn name, or a link to the designer. Anything really; the best thing about KAL is how open to interpretation they are. We are only given the three months ahead. So January is Dickens, February is Shakespeare and March is Agatha Christie. I've been looking for accessory patterns, mainly so I can fit them in! I'm also hoping some things can double up for gifts I have planned throughout the year. For Dickens month, I have opted for Pip Squeak socks, tenuously inspired by the hero of Great Expectations. I was hoping for a lacy Miss Haversham pattern, but it seems there is a lack. Designers, take note! The socks are ankle length, so a nice quick knit. And, as always, perfect for my never ending bus commutes. The yarn is Trekking XL, a German brand I have had in stash for years. I can't even remember how I came by it. The colour warms me up just looking at it!

What a tangled web...

Toddlers and yarn. Like chocolate and cheese, or red wine and cola, they come under the category of Things I Love, but they should probably never be put together.

This week I bought a ball of Wendy Happy sock yarn, from my brand new and super cool LYS Fibre Flurry. Whilst it was all wrapped up in a pretty pink bag and on a high(ish) shelf, it took only twenty minutes for The Diva to find it. Wendy Happy is a bamboo yarn, which means it's silky, slippy and..................very easy to tangle.





I haven't posted a pic of the original carnage; I felt that may be too much for the delicate sensibilities of some knitters. The above viper's nest is THREE DAYS into the recovery. If I paid myself minimum wage for the detangling process, you'd be looking at the equivalent of a tonne of qiviut.

If times weren't so hard, I'd probably have just binned it. Happy isn't expensive, but it was a treat, so I'm determined to save it. And the ensuing socks will be for my feet only. I've earnt them already.

Pea on a Mountain

How cute is this little hat? Knitted in lovely RYC Cashsoft, I followed the Poppy pattern from Ravelry, and knitted the correct size for Daphne. Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, I didn't allow for her chimp-like low sitting ears, and this keeps popping off the top of her head. After five minutes she looks like Brian Harvey. it's too cute not to make it work though, have started again in the biggest size!

January Mitts!

I'm trying to knit a project a month this year. In my head, they'll be going into a box for Christmas presents although I think there'll be some birthday gifting going on too. So here's the first. A pair of 'Suzie's Reading Mitts' in Sublime Cashmerino Aran. This was a nice pattern, with an interesting way of getting the pretty picot edge (a yarn over row folded at the end). They were fun to knit, although a lack of concentration on my part means one is about half an inch longer than the other. I will explain that to the receiver, it would be a bonus if I can find someone with one wrist longer than the other. I don't think you can really tell though.

The yarn is squishy-softie-fabulous. A combo of wool, silk and probably some other bits, I'd love to knit with this more often. But I'm not rich, so I can't. It's a nice yarn for a little gift project like this though. What do you think?

Cake for breakfast?

Bang goes the New Year's diet!

My lovely husband found a Christmas present he'd bought a while ago and forgotten to give to me, so he planned a little surprise. It's a very cute cardboard cake stand: he confessed he thought he'd got a real bargain on a china one until it arrived in the post - bless.

So he stayed up late last night to bake some fairy cakes, in what I think was his first attempt, and set it up for me this morning.

So the children and I have had fairy cakes for breakfast. Oh well, there's the rest of the day to eat fruit, eh?