I actually finished something!

Sorry for the rubbish photo... Our tree surgeon recently had a baby (well, his wife did) and so I decided to challenge myself to knit her a little hat while he was cutting down one of our trees today. I did, and I beat him too!

The hat is in fairtrade organic cotton, hopefully nice for a spring hat.

Plus I won the race of hat V tree. Yay!

Upcoming sewing?

I haven't completed or worked on anything for awhile, having been busy busy.

However, I do have it in mind to make some quilted kitchen appliance covers to protect the Shiny. Watch this space...

tangerine trees

In lieu of posting a photo of the hat I just finished (which, as a gift, will remain unpictured until received), here is a tiny practice swatch of continental knitting. As you'll see by the poor quality, I need to practice this more (yep, a facecloth is in progress). It's great, though, when you're constantly switching between knit and purl in a pattern, or doing masses of stockinette in the round. I'd like to master it before starting an entirely ribbed hat.

I learned to do this from a YouTube video (safer than skydiving). The lady who did the demo is teaching a class at UK Knit Camp in August - I'd love to go and get guidance (why is tension so troublesome?) but I can't. Anyway: behold!





I wonder if other knitters have lurid sale yarn for practicing new techniques with. I just can't bring myself to use anything I'd actually want for a project. And the crispness of this cotton makes mistakes very obvious, which I guess is a good thing.

So, onward. In addition to the continental washcloth, I've resumed work on the unnamed evil item from wintertime. I'm not at all sure I should have two such troublesome projects on the go at the same time!

When they're finished, next in the queue are:

- a scarf to match the hat just finished

- a warmer hat with earflaps

- a ribbed hat for the husband

- two undecided Christmas presents for my sisters in law, using a super merino-silk blend. mmm.

- amigurumi Christmas ornaments. fun!

Moar yarn!

I'm noticing a trend... I can buy yarn faster than I can turn it into things. Yesterday I found some beautiful wool/silk blend in jewel tones and bought it for top secret Christmas presents. I figure if I start now there's a small chance they'll be done in time!

In other news, still no new finished items to report...

Lack of updates

Due to recent events, I haven't been crafting much. I made a striped blue crochet TP cover for my mom, but forgot to take a photo. Oops.

The list of outstanding projects hasn't changed, although I am toying with the idea of making myself a cabled headband and possibly a mesh shopping bag. We'll see.

Frankenbun

I think this is possibly the worst-assembled Easter bunny ever. The arms, legs and head all point in different directions, one leg is too short, and the face is dreadful. I feel sorry for the little girl who's getting this!

It's a bunny in footed pyjamas, which is why it's mostly purple. A really cute idea. The execution, not so much.

Slow going

I haven't been crafting much but I have been naughty and bought Neat Stuff.

I am 2/3 of the way through a crochet pram toy. I have made seaweed, the handle ring and dangly strings to hold fishes. Now I must make the fishes. I regularly debate with myself over whether fishes really need faces, as I find putting eyes and mouths on a chore.

I am halfway through the first hat (see below) for my stepdad. I had a break while dreading changing colours but did so yesterday and am now making good progress.

The Project Which Shall Not Be Named is still lurking. I have some new needles (see below) that should help.

Now, the naughty list...

I bagged a bargain on eBay; I got several sets of very chunky knitting needles from a store closure.

A company called Denise makes crochet/knitting sets - interchangeable tips that attach to various lengths of cord - which I have obtained. These are apparently airline-safe, too, which is nice. The uses are too many to list here but they will come in handy.

I also bought a huge collection (17 different sized sets) of double pointed bamboo needles from China (on eBay, direct from the factory), the right length for socks/mittens or the tops of hats. These were sooo cheap and came really quickly. I will definitely buy this way again for bamboo, the price difference is incredible. A 5-needle set in the UK may cost £3-4 with little choice of lengths/materials available, 17 of these sets cost me £14 including shipping. There's no contest really.

I bought more yarn... I have some lovely fat merino wool to make a second, bulkier hat for my stepdad for use in colder weather. I'm looking forward to knitting this, it should go very quickly due to the size of the yarn/needles. I also bought other yarns... mumble mumble...

So, hopefully I'll soon have some finished products to report on!